---
title: "Cloning a VM"
description: "- Being an administrative contact of your VMware on OVHcloud infrastructure (to receive login credentials)"
url: https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/hosted-private-cloud/vmware/clone-vm
lang: en
---
> For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms.txt, the full documentation bundle is available at https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/llms-full.txt.

# Cloning a VM

## Requirements

- Being an administrative contact of your [VMware on OVHcloud](https://us.ovhcloud.com/hosted-private-cloud/vmware/) infrastructure (to receive login credentials)
- A [user account with access to vSphere](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/hosted-private-cloud/vmware/introduction-ovhcloud-console.md#exploring-the-pcc-dashboard) (created in the OVHcloud Control Panel)

 

## Instructions

### Clone a VM

Cloning enables quick and efficient deployment of similar virtual machines (VMs). You can clone a VM directly into another VM or convert it into a template.

- Cloning to a VM is a fast way to duplicate a complete VM and its configuration.
- Cloning to a template is the preferred method for creating a master image that can be used to deploy many VMs.

 

### Clone to VM

In the vSphere Web Client, go to the `Hosts and Clusters` dashboard. Navigate to your VM, right-click on it, select `Clone`, and choose `Clone to Virtual Machine...`.

On the following screen, you can configure your new clone.

1. **Select a name and folder:** Name the clone VM and select its data center location.

2. **Select a compute resource:** Select the clone VM compute location.

3. **Select storage:** Select the clone VM storage location.

4. **Select clone options:** 

   - Customizing the operating system will trigger sysprep on the first use of the VM.
   - Customizing this virtual machine's hardware allows for modification of VM capabilities (HDD size, network elements, etc.)
   - Powering on a virtual machine after creation is not recommended, as you may have to apply changes before startup to prevent issues (network conflicts, most notably if you use fixed IPs).

5. **Ready to complete:** Review and click `Finish`.

**Note:**

If you cloned without any customization, make sure it is safe to boot the new VM. If it is coned from a fixed IP VM, you should disable the Network Card to avoid IP conflicts, for example.

 

### Clone to Template

In the vSphere Web Client, go to the `Hosts and Clusters` dashboard. Navigate to your VM, right-click on it, select `Clone`, and choose `Clone to Template...`.

On the following screen, you can configure your new template.

1. **Select a name and folder:** Name the template VM and select its data center location.
2. **Select a compute resource:** Select the template VM compute location.
3. **Select storage:** Select the template VM storage location.
4. **Ready to complete:** Review and click `Finish`.

When the process is finished, you will not see your template until you deploy a new VM using the "Deploy from a Template" option.

 

## Go further

Browse all the [VMware on OVHcloud guides](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/hosted-private-cloud/vmware/landing-page-vmware.md).

Browse the rest of the [OVHcloud US documentation](https://docs.us.ovhcloud.com/en/index.md) for guides on our other products and services.

Learn more about [VMware on OVHcloud](https://us.ovhcloud.com/hosted-private-cloud/vmware/) on the OVHcloud US website.