In part 1, we created an NFS datastore, now we’ll use the
Rapid Clones feature of the VSC to populate it with some VMs.
vSphere Client
> Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters (or the ‘VMs and Templates’
view)
- Select the VM to be rapid cloned
- Hit the “Create rapid clones” button.
Image: NetApp VSC
4.1 “Create rapid clones” button
Note: One thing
that’s very nice about this tool is that it will check disk alignment before
starting, and warn you if the VM you’ve picked for rapid cloning is not disk
aligned correctly (the clones would end up being similarly misaligned).
Image: Example
warning of trying to rapid clone a VM with VMDK files that are not aligned
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 1: Storage Controller details
- Select the ‘Target Storage Controller’ and click Next
>
Image: Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 1
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 2: Clone Source
*This step is
skipped since we’ve already selected a VM
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 3: Clone Destination
- Choose the host or cluster for the new clones and click
Next >
Note: Optionally,
can “Specify the virtual machine folder for the new clones”
Image: Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 3
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 4: Virtual machine folder
*This step is
skipped unless you tick the “Specify the virtual machine folder for the new
clones” from Step 3
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 5: Disk format
- Choose ‘Same format as source’ / ‘Thin provisioned
format’ / ‘Thick format’ and click Next >
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 6: Virtual machine details
- Specify the details of the virtual machine clones (see
example below) and click Next >
Image: Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 6 Example Specifications
Note i: The options
for broker version are VMware View 4.5/4.6/5.0/5.1, and Citrix XenDesktop
4.0/5.0
Note ii: For the
wizard, clones names can only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and - characters!
Note iii: If you
already have saved customizations in ‘vSphere Client > Home > Management
> Customization Specifications Manager’, and the correct sysprep versions or
similar installed on your vCenter, the ‘Apply customization specification?’
tick box can be checked.
Image: vSphere
Client and vCenter’s ‘Customization Specifications Manager’
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 7: Datastore creation
*This step is
skipped if the ‘Create new datastore(s)’ check box is not ticked in Step 6
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 8: Datastore selection
- Select a datastore to store the files for the virtual
machine and click Next >
Note: Clicking the
‘Advanced >>’ button allows you to specify different datastores for
configuration files and disks.
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 9: Connection broker
*This step is
skipped if a ‘Connection broker version’ of none is selection in Step 6
Create Rapid
Clones Wizard - Step 10: Summary
- Review the summary and if AOK click Apply
And that’s it. Wait a little bit and the clones are
provisioned!
Image: vSphere
Client Recent Tasks for NetApp rapid clone virtual machine
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