CLONING A VIRTUAL MACHINE
IN "VMWARE PLAYER"
IN A "WINDOWS" HOST COMPUTER
HIGH-LEVEL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
In "VMware Player", you can copy a virtual machine directly, using "Windows Explorer" or "My Computer" or the "copy" command at a command prompt. In "VMware Player", you can copy a virtual hard drive directly, using "Windows Explorer" or "My Computer" or the "copy" command at a command prompt.
A key advantage of "VMware Player" over "Oracle VM VirtualBox" and "Windows Virtual PC" is the ease with which virtual machines and virtual hard drives can be cloned in "VMware Player".
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
When you follow this procedure to clone a virtual machine, the new virtual machine that you create will have a new, unique "UUID.BIOS" (="computer UUID"). However, the virtual hard drive of the new virtual machine will have the same "hard disk UUID" as the virtual hard drive of the original virtual machine. In a "VMware Player", the *.vmx file of a virtual machine stores the following: the "UUID.BIOS",
the "UUID.Location", and
the unique MAC addresses of each virtual network adapter.
STEP-BY-STEP EXAMPLE:
*
In "VMware Player", when the host is "Windows 7" or "Windows Vista", the default location for a virtual machine and its virtual hard drive file is located at C:\Users\<your profile name>\My Documents\Virtual Machines\
In "VMware Player", when the host is "Windows XP", the default location for a virtual machine and its virtual hard drive file is located at
C:\Documents and Settings\<your profile name>\My Documents\Virtual Machines\
In "VMware Player", a folder that by default has the same name as the name of the virtual machine is created, when you create a virtual machine:
*
To copy an entire virtual machine in "VMware Player", you can use the right mouse button to drag it to a new location.
*
When your mouse cursor reaches the desired location, release the mouse button and a popup context menu will be displayed:
Click on "Copy here": *
*
*
*
*
Windows will give the new virtual machine folder a name in the format of <name of original virtual machine folder> - Copy
*
Click on "Rename" in the pop-up context menu:
*
*
In our example, we typed
Windows 7 Enterprise Trial--vm901 clone01 Then press the Enter key to lock in the name.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Inside the virtual machine folder, you will find a *.vmx file.
*
*
Click on the "Open" button:
*
Your newly-created virtual machine is now at the top of the list of virtual machines in the left pane of the main "VMware Player" window:
*
* *
A "Virtual Machine Settings" box will be displayed:
Adjust the amount of RAM that is to be allocated to the new virtual machine, if you need to do so.
*
*
Modify the displayed name of the new virtual machine.
In most situations, it is best to make the displayed name the same as the name of the folder that contains the virtual machine.
In our example, we change the displayed name slightly from Windows 7 x64 Enterprise Trial--vm901
to
*
*
The "Virtual Machine Settings" box will disappear.
*
*
*
A "The virtual machine has been moved or copied" box will be displayed: Select the "I copied it" option to tell "VMware Player" to perform the following actions:
Action 1:
Provide the new virtual machine with a unique, new "UUID BIOS" which is also known as a "motherboard UUID" or a "system UUID".
Action 2:
Provide the new virtual machine with a unique, new "UUID Location" which is also known as a "Location UUID" which is a UUID that "VMware Player" uses to keep track of the location on the host's hard drive for the folder of the virtual machine.
Provide the virtual network adapter of the new virtual machine with a new, unique MAC address.
*
Click on "OK" in the "This virtual machine may have been moved or copied" box. The virtual machine will continue with the Windows boot up process:
*
APPENDIX 1
YOU CANNOT CHANGE HARD DRIVE UUIDs
FOR THE CLONED .VMDK VIRTUAL HARD
DRIVE OF A CLONED VIRTUAL MACHINE IN
"VMWARE PLAYER"
The virtual hard drive of a cloned virtual machine has to have the same "hard drive UUID" (="disk signature") as the original virtual machine.
The "hard drive UUID" of the .vmdk virtual hard drive of the new, cloned virtual machine has to stay exactly the same as the "hard drive UUID" of the original virtual machine:
In the next example, we proved this. We changed the "hard drive UUID" of the virtual hard drive of a newly-created, cloned virtual machine:
We used the "diskpart" command followed by the
uniqueid disk ID=<new UUID for hard drive> to change the "harddrive UUID" from
F36380A1 to
F36380A2
See
*
Our exact steps were:
Click on Windows "Start" button. Type
cmd
into the "Search" box.
Use right mouse button to click on "CMD" in the left-most side of the "Start menu".
Click on "Run as administrator" in the popup context menu. Type in
and hit the Enter key. Type in
select disk 0
and hit the Enter key. Type in
uniqueid disk
and hit the Enter key. Type in
uniqueid disk id=F36380A82 Type in
exit
and hit the Enter key.
We then restarted the virtual machine:
*
*
APPENDIX 2
YOU CAN VIEW THE
"UUID.BIOS",
"UUID.Location",
AND MAC ADDRESS
FOR ANY VIRTUAL MACHINE
IN "VMWARE PLAYER"
Each virtual machine in "VMware Player" has a .vmx file.
If you open this .vmx file with Windows "Notepad", or "Wordpad". you can view these three values.
*
*
A popup context menu will be displayed. *
*
*
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:89:9e:1d" tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
uuid.location = "56 4d 51 6c fe 5d 4d fe-12 28 31 f5 74 89 9e 1d" uuid.bios = "56 4d 51 6c fe 5d 4d fe-12 28 31 f5 74 89 9e 1d"
