vsphere client 5.5 cloning vm

[ggomez43]

new to vsphere practicing on my nested ESXi 5.5

In Host A, I clone a VM to same host and received validation okay. When I try to clone to Host B, I receive an data store not accessible...I get it, the VM datastore is in Host1.

In a real Environment, do you copy the "VMFS files to another Host" to be able to clone the VM?

just trying to understand when and in what scenario to you clone a machine....

thanks

[RyanH84 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

In a real environment, you would probably utilise some form of shared storage that both hosts can see. You can set this up in a lab quite easily by using something like OpenFiler, which is a storage operating system that can be run as a VM and present storage over the network.

I use an openfiler in my 100% visualized lab using Workstation (nested ESXi hosts, vCenter, nested OpenFiler VM using NFS and iSCSI, AD, etc)

The reasons you might want to clone a machine are varied. A simple example I can think of would be if you want to take a copy of a Production machine and then fire it up, as a standalone/network isolated server to troubleshoot issues that you might be having on it.

I'm happy to answer any further questions you might have!

[ggomez43]

thanks you.

I heard open filer can cause a lot of issues. What do you think of FreeNAS or freebsd ?

I guess I can experiment with them all and see which one is best.

[RyanH84]

No problem. I've had no problem with Openfiler in my virtual lab, I've also used FreeNAS and it was fine also!

As you say, try them all and play around to see which one works best for you, it's all a great learning experience!

[ggomez43]

I think I will try Free NAS.

Can you give me a few tips on the pre-setup of FreeNAS?

• Do I create a VM with FreeNAS
• Do I need additional storage to setup FreeNAS
• Login FREENAS from my windows 7 client

Right now my setup is nested ESXi A ESXI B on an HP Proliant DL380G6 server.

[RyanH84]

Hi,

Sure thing! I use nested virtualization. So I run VMware Workstation on my home PC and then the VM's inside that are my ESXi Hosts, vCenter, domain controller, FreeNAS, etc.

You create a new Workstation VM and assign this VM lots of disk space (However much you want your NAS to have, depending on how much is available on your workstation).
Download FreeNas ISO and use that to install as the Operating System of your VM.

Follow the configuration and setup the VM, I've found this guide which looks quite good for setting it up if you don't know what to do.

It will be possible once configured to present storage from the NAS server to your ESXi hosts if you have correct networking in place.

Hope that makes sense?

[ggomez43]

Thanks for quick reply.

I got the idea.