Cloning VM’s in VMware Server 2.0

Summary of Issue

Recently I converted a gaming PC of mine into a VMware server.  I have been working alot with MOSS and needed a good environment that I could toss around a few VMs quickly.  After some minor issues I was able to get VMware Server 2.0 up and running.  After the completion of my first Server 2003 Enterprise R2 install I wanted to create an image so that I could reuse it with out having to go through the entire setup and update process again.  This took a bit more than just a copy and paste of the VM data in the datastore.

Methods to resolve the problem

1. Create the image
2. Run sysprep, and shut down VM
3. Create a copy of the directory of vm1 and save it now as vm2
4. Browse into the vm2 directory and open the .vmx file for the new VM. Think of this file like an .ini file for applications.
5.Look for the following lines:

extendedConfigFile = vm1.vmxf
scsi0:0.fileName = vm1.vmdk

6. Rename “vm1″ to “vm2″
7. Open VMware Infrastructure Web Access and click Add Virtual Machine to Inventory
8. Power on your newly cloned VM

Sources

• My inspiration for this can be found at: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1132686