1VIRT-CLONE(1) Virtualization Support VIRT-CLONE(1)
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6 virt-clone - clone existing virtual machine images
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9 virt-clone [OPTION]...
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12 virt-clone is a command line tool for cloning existing virtual machine
13 images using the libvirt hypervisor management library. It will copy
14 the disk images of any existing virtual machine, and define a new guest
15 with an identical virtual hardware configuration. Elements which re‐
16 quire uniqueness will be updated to avoid a clash between old and new
17 guests.
18 By default, virt-clone will show an error if the necessary information
20 to clone the guest is not provided. The --auto-clone option will gener‐
21 ate all needed input, aside from the source guest to clone.
22 Please note, virt-clone does not change anything _inside_ the guest OS,
24 it only duplicates disks and does host side changes. So things like
25 changing passwords, changing static IP address, etc are outside the
26 scope of this tool. For these types of changes, please see
27 virt-sysprep.
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30 Most options are not required. Minimum requirements are --original or
31 --original-xml (to specify the guest to clone), --name, and appropriate
32 storage options via -file.
33 --connect URI
35 Connect to a non-default hypervisor. See virt-install(1) for de‐
36 tails
37 -o, --original ORIGINAL_GUEST
39 Name of the original guest to be cloned. This guest must be shut
40 off.
41 --original-xml ORIGINAL_XML
43 Libvirt guest xml file to use as the original guest. The guest
44 does not need to be defined on the libvirt connection. This
45 takes the place of the --original parameter.
46 --auto-clone
48 Generate a new guest name, and paths for new storage.
49 An example of possible generated output:
51 Original name : MyVM
53 Generated clone name : MyVM-clone
54 Original disk path : /home/user/foobar.img
56 Generated disk path : /home/user/foobar-clone.img
57 If generated names collide with existing VMs or storage, a num‐
59 ber is appended, such as foobar-clone-1.img, or MyVM-clone-3.
60 -n, --name NAME
62 Name of the new guest virtual machine instance. This must be
63 unique amongst all guests known to the hypervisor connection,
64 including those not currently active.
65 -u, --uuid UUID
67 UUID for the guest; if none is given a random UUID will be gen‐
68 erated. If you specify UUID, you should use a 32-digit hexadeci‐
69 mal number. UUID are intended to be unique across the entire
70 data center, and indeed world. Bear this in mind if manually
71 specifying a UUID
72 -f, --file PATH
74 Path to the file, disk partition, or logical volume to use as
75 the backing store for the new guest's virtual disk. If the orig‐
76 inal guest has multiple disks, this parameter must be repeated
77 multiple times, once per disk in the original virtual machine.
78 --nvram NVRAMFILE
80 Optional path to the new nvram VARS file, if no path is speci‐
81 fied and the guest has nvram the new nvram path will be
82 auto-generated. If the guest doesn't have nvram this option will
83 be ignored.
84 --force-copy TARGET
86 Force cloning the passed disk target ('hdc', 'sda', etc.). By
87 default, virt-clone will skip certain disks, such as those
88 marked 'readonly' or 'shareable'.
89 --skip-copy TARGET
91 Skip cloning the passed disk target ('hdc', 'sda', etc.). By de‐
92 fault, virt-clone will clone certain disk images, typically
93 read/write devices. Use this to skip copying of a specific de‐
94 vice, so the new VM uses the same storage path as the original
95 VM.
96 --nonsparse
98 Fully allocate the new storage if the path being cloned is a
99 sparse file. See virt-install(1) for more details on sparse vs.
100 nonsparse.
101 --preserve-data
103 No storage is cloned: disk images specific by --file are pre‐
104 served as is, and referenced in the new clone XML. This is use‐
105 ful if you want to clone a VM XML template, but not the storage
106 contents.
107 --reflink
109 When --reflink is specified, perform a lightweight copy. This is
110 much faster if source images and destination images are all on
111 the same btrfs filesystem. If COW copy is not possible, then
112 virt-clone fails.
113 -m, --mac MAC
115 Fixed MAC address for the guest; If this parameter is omitted,
116 or the value RANDOM is specified a suitable address will be ran‐
117 domly generated. Addresses are applied sequentially to the net‐
118 works as they are listed in the original guest XML.
119 --print-xml
121 Print the generated clone XML and exit without cloning.
122 --replace
124 Shutdown and remove any existing guest with the passed --name
125 before cloning the original guest.
126 -h, --help
128 Show the help message and exit
129 --version
131 Show program's version number and exit
132 --check
134 Enable or disable some validation checks. See virt-install(1)
135 for more details.
136 -q, --quiet
138 Suppress non-error output.
139 -d, --debug
141 Print debugging information to the terminal when running the in‐
142 stall process. The debugging information is also stored in
143 ~/.cache/virt-manager/virt-clone.log even if this parameter is
144 omitted.
145
147 Clone the guest called demo on the default connection, auto generating
148 a new name and disk clone path.
149 # virt-clone \
151 --original demo \
152 --auto-clone
153 Clone the guest called demo which has a single disk to copy
155 # virt-clone \
157 --original demo \
158 --name newdemo \
159 --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdemo.img
160 Clone a QEMU guest with multiple disks
162 # virt-clone \
164 --connect qemu:///system \
165 --original demo \
166 --name newdemo \
167 --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdemo.img \
168 --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdata.img
169 Clone a guest to a physical device which is at least as big as the
171 original guests disks. If the destination device is bigger, the new
172 guest can do a filesystem resize when it boots.
173 # virt-clone \
175 --connect qemu:///system \
176 --original demo \
177 --name newdemo \
178 --file /dev/HostVG/DemoVM \
179 --mac 52:54:00:34:11:54
180
182 Please see https://virt-manager.org/bugs
183
185 Copyright (C) Fujitsu Limited, Copyright (C) Red Hat, Inc, and various
186 contributors. This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it
187 under the terms of the GNU General Public License
188 https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. There is NO WARRANTY, to the
189 extent permitted by law.
190
192 virt-sysprep(1), virsh(1), virt-install(1), virt-manager(1), the
193 project website https://virt-manager.org
194 VIRT-CLONE(1)