Clone Automation - MAC Address, Windows Computer Name, and Windows SID

[fwRoller]

Is clone automation available in Beta 4 of Fusion? If not, will it be added before the final release?

I'm looking for an easy way to clone existing VMs that have Windows installed. Automating the creation of a new MAC address and a new SID in Windows would be great. It would also be nice to be prompted for new names of the VM and machine name. The automation tool would then make a copy of the exisiting VM, rename the files and change the references to those files to reflect the new names, change the MAC address, change the computer name within Windows, and change the SID within Windows. If this functionality already exists, please let me know where. If it does not, please refine this request with your own clone wish list items so that the folks at VMware know specifically what would make our lives easier when working off a base VM to build many other VMs. I believe that this is a common practice as it does make sense to reinstall the same operating system over and over again when all that changes from one VM to the next is the set of applications that are running on that operating system.

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[Tutor]

That or a renaming function inside the VM Library window that changes the config files, too.

I did a file copy with just changing the bundle name and now the Unity program aliases feature references those aliases with the original vm. Somewhat annoying

Can I get information which files I have to edit to rectify that?

To give a hint to fwRoller, after you have copied your vm, at your first opening of that you will get asked it the vm has been copied or moved. A simplified version of the dialog I know from VMware Workstation. I assume if you answer "copied" some virtual hardware settings get changed. Then with a tool like NewSID form Mark Russovich you should be able to get somewhere.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

[fwRoller]

I've been answering the copy or move question with copy and have also been using NewSID. Additionally I have been manually changing the file names, modifying the *.vmx file to reflect those name changes, and manually changing the computer name in Windows. This is not automation and automation is what I'm looking for from the folks at VMware.

A robust cloning function would make life easier and save a great deal of time when building multiple VMs from a single baseline VM that already has Windows installed and configured. Although Fusion is intended to be easy to use and hides many of the details from the user, there will be many users of Fusion that want and need access to more configuration options as well as automation like this. I build VMs every week for testing and they are usually variations of a previously built VM where I just add more software and change some configuration options. These new VMs are run simultaneously so they need to have different file names, MAC addresses, Computer Names, and SIDs. A tool to automate this cloning process would be greatly appreciated.

Doesn't anyone else on this forum need this functionality? If so, please reply so that VMware is aware of the need. Thanks.

[admin · Accepted solution]

If you answer "copied" to the moved/copied question, the VM will get a new MAC address, and then if it's using DHCP it will automatically get a new IP address when you boot it. You're currently on your own for SID, computer name, and IP address if it's static though.

Note that Fusion doesn't currently have any advanced clone functionality, so this discussion is all in the context of "if we do add that to Fusion, what should it look like?". Have you used Workstation 6 for Windows, and are you happy with the clone automation there?

Message was edited by:

magi -- I had it backwards the first time.

[Tutor]

I am sorry, are you sure regarding "moved"? I expect that to leave the config totally alone. What does Fusion do if I answer "copied" - nothing at all? Would be totally against my expectation

Cannot answer regarding Workstation 6, I have not used that yet. Needed to go my first Vista as host steps with Virtual PC, since it was already released at the time I needed it. Will revert to VMware in the future, though. I want keep my images on the same proven solution, which works with Macs now, too! And better than the competition on Mac and PC. You guys know your stuff.

I have a feeling Fusion is pretty much feature complete for a 1.0 release regarding the intended audience. Judging by this forum, there seems some interest in a full Workstation package. For me at home Fusion is sufficient, but for work a few more features might be nice, such as fwRoller's and my request. But then I will do my own relevant VMware business work on Windows as host anyway. Not that an easy task to maesure the market I think.

Thanks for the great products. An answer to my question at the beginning of this post would be nice, too

[admin]

Thanks for pointing it out; I had it backwards, and you're right of course. "Copied": we change the MAC address. "Moved": we leave it alone.

I did a file copy with just changing the bundle name and now the Unity program aliases feature

references those aliases with the original vm. Somewhat annoying

Can I get information which files I have to edit to rectify that?

I'm getting confused by this question, probably just by terminology, because we don't have anything we call aliaes -- you mean the dock icons? (We call them "dockers" internally.)

Look inside the VM bundle itself, in a folder called Applications, and there'll be a .app bundle for each app you've installed in that VM. In each of these .app bundles, there's an Info.plist, and you probably want to look at the DOGuestVMConfigPath key. When you copied the VM, all its dockers probably still reference the original location.

[fwRoller]

The clone automation in Workstation 6 is nice, but still lacks changing the Windows machine name and Windows SID. Getting the same level of cloning automation in Fusion as Workstation 6 would be a great start. Please add it for the next beta. Thanks.

[sedman]

The best way I found to 'automate' system cloning. This was not under ESX but it should be easier to perform under ESX as there are not hardware/driver allowances to be made.

I provided cloning services for a development area with 50+ workstations, running every app under the sun, - 24GB of data in the images before they start their work.

The only thing which should be noted; refrain from trying to change hostname from a number of character to another number of characters......keep the same number of characters in the hostname.

prereq's

SID changing program - ghostwalk or whatever.

Update toolkit from "http://www.funduc.com/update_toolkit.htm" (not an add, I know them only because I purchased their tool.)

Now this tool is rather unique, it can find and change the hostname and other things on a windows system.

it does find and replace for file/directory/bin file/registry. thats shortcuts and everything!

Process:

Ghost image onto system (esx copy disk image or clone)

run ghostwalk which changes the windows hostname and the SID.

Let the system boot, - automatic batch file in admin startup (after loggin on or auto login) with hardcoded original image hostname checks hostname (as changed with ghostwalk) and runs the findNreplace and another few batch files. should only require login, OK, and ok to reboot.

My 24GB images took (after inital copy) about 45mins to run the automated change hostname/app links. The whole process took about 1.5 hours, with about 5 mins of user intervention.

Required about a day to learn and test the whole procedure, but it was well worth it! Else it would have taken me about 8 hours per system with hours of user intervention, and hours of post handover work for the developers to do....

Anyhow... hope this helps someone.