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:
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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:

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To copy an entire virtual machine in "VMware Player", you can use the right
mouse button to drag it to a new location.
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When your mouse cursor reaches the desired location, release the mouse button
and a popup context menu will be displayed:

Click on "Copy here":

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Windows will give the new virtual machine folder a name in the format of
<name of original virtual machine folder> - Copy
Use the right mouse button to click on the newly-created virtual machine folder:
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A pop-up context menu will be displayed:
Click on "Rename" in the pop-up context menu:

Type in an appropriate name for the new virtual machine:

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In our example, we typed
Windows 7 Enterprise Trial--vm901 clone01

Then press the Enter key to lock in the name.

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Start the "VMware Player" program:
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Click on "Open a Virtual Machine":
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An "Open Virtual Machine" box will be displayed:
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Navigate to the location of the newly-created virtual machine folder:
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Double-click on the folder of the newly-created virtual machine:
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Inside the virtual machine folder, you will find a *.vmx file.

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Click on this .vmx file:
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Click on the "Open" button:

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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:
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Click on "Edit virtual machine settings":
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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.
Then click on the "OK" button.
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Click on the "Options" tab:
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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
Windows 7 x64 Enterprise Trial--vm901 clone01
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Click on the "OK" button:
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The "Virtual Machine Settings" box will disappear.
You should now be back at the main Window of "VMware Player":
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Click on "Play virtual machine".
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The new virtual machine will start up.
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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.

Action 3:
Provide the virtual network adapter of the new virtual machine with a new, unique
MAC address.

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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:
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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
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/change-disk-signature.shtml
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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
diskpart
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:

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This virtual machine was then unable to boot:
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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.

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Use your right mouse button to perform a click on the *.vmx file:
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A popup context menu will be displayed.
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Click on "Notepad".
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Scroll down:
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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"