Clone a VM to other ESX 3.5 Hosts without vCenter Server

[Jain]

We have 4 standalone ESX 3.5 hosts in our environment. Can I keep a Windows XP Master VM in a host and clone it to remaining hosts whenever required ? using any scripts ?

[pcmd]

Those of us without the funds for VC usually use VMware Converter.

[lamw]

Do you know which ESX 3.5 update? If you're update 2 or 3, you might be in luck and you could take a look at: else VMware Converter is your best bet or if you're comfortable with the command line, you can just use vmkfstools to copy the vmdk and cp for the .vmx configuration file with some edits to the .vmx and register with vmware-vim-cmd

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William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

Twitter: @lamw

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[karavinds1]

Hello Jain,

You can clone a VMDK using vmkfstools from the command line.

vmkfstools -i \ /vmfs/volumes/473b3617-d16b0504-3ec9-001cc47ceca2/Win2003R2-Ent-32/Win2003.vmdk\ /vmfs/volumes/473ccab1-db879908-4a5a-001cc47ceca2/WADTS02/WADTS02.vmdk

Once done you can get into the VI client, connect to a different host and add a VM, choosing

the "Use an existing virtual disk" option from the Wizard.

Regards,

Aravind K

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