Ubuntu Manpage: virt-clone - clone existing virtual machine images

Provided by: virtinst_2.2.1-3ubuntu2.2_all

NAME

       virt-clone - clone existing virtual machine images

SYNOPSIS

       virt-clone [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

       virt-clone is a command line tool for cloning existing virtual machine images using the "libvirt"
       hypervisor management library. It will copy the disk images of any existing virtual machine, and define a
       new guest with an identical virtual hardware configuration. Elements which require uniqueness will be
       updated to avoid a clash between old and new guests.

       By default, virt-clone will show an error if the necessary information to clone the guest is not
       provided. The --auto-clone option will generate all needed input, aside from the source guest to clone.

       Please note, virt-clone does not change anything _inside_ the guest OS, it only duplicates disks and does
       host side changes. So things like changing passwords, changing static IP address, etc are outside the
       scope of this tool. For these types of changes, please see virt-sysprep.

GENERAL OPTIONS

Most options are not required. Minimum requirements are --original or --original-xml (to specify the
guest to clone), --name, and appropriate storage options via -file.

--connect URI
Connect to a non-default hypervisor. See virt-install(1) for details

-o ORIGINAL_GUEST
--original ORIGINAL_GUEST
Name of the original guest to be cloned. This guest must be shut off or paused since it is not
possible to safely clone active guests at this time.

--original-xml ORIGINAL_XML
Libvirt guest xml file to use as the original guest. The guest does not need to be defined on the
libvirt connection. This takes the place of the "--original" parameter.

--auto-clone
Generate a new guest name, and paths for new storage.

An example or possible generated output:

Original name : MyVM
Generated clone name : MyVM-clone

Original disk path : /home/user/foobar.img
Generated disk path : /home/user/foobar-clone.img

If generated names collide with existing VMs or storage, a number is appended, such as
foobar-clone-1.img, or MyVM-clone-3.

-n NAME
--name NAME
Name of the new guest virtual machine instance. This must be unique amongst all guests known to the
hypervisor connection, including those not currently active.

-u UUID
--uuid UUID
UUID for the guest; if none is given a random UUID will be generated. If you specify UUID, you should
use a 32-digit hexadecimal number. UUID are intended to be unique across the entire data center, and
indeed world. Bear this in mind if manually specifying a UUID

-f DISKFILE
--file DISKFILE
Path to the file, disk partition, or logical volume to use as the backing store for the new guest's
virtual disk. If the original guest has multiple disks, this parameter must be repeated multiple
times, once per disk in the original virtual machine.

--nvram NVRAMFILE
Optional path to the new nvram VARS file, if no path is specified and the guest has nvram the new
nvram path will be auto-generated. If the guest doesn't have nvram this option will be ignored.

--force-copy TARGET
Force cloning the passed disk target ('hdc', 'sda', etc.). By default, "virt-clone" will skip certain
disks, such as those marked 'readonly' or 'shareable'.

--skip-copy TARGET
Skip cloning the passed disk target ('hdc', 'sda', etc.). By default, "virt-clone" will clone certain
disk images, typically read/write devices. Use this to skip copying of a specific device, so the new
VM uses the same storage path as the original VM.

--nonsparse
Fully allocate the new storage if the path being cloned is a sparse file. See virt-install(1) for
more details on sparse vs. nonsparse.

--preserve-data
No storage is cloned: disk images specific by --file are preserved as is, and referenced in the new
clone XML. This is useful if you want to clone a VM XML template, but not the storage contents.

--reflink
When --reflink is specified, perform a lightweight copy. This is much faster if source images and
destination images are all on the same btrfs filesystem. If COW copy is not possible, then virt-
clone fails.

-m MAC
--mac MAC
Fixed MAC address for the guest; If this parameter is omitted, or the value "RANDOM" is specified a
suitable address will be randomly generated. Addresses are applied sequentially to the networks as
they are listed in the original guest XML.

--print-xml
Print the generated clone XML and exit without cloning.

--replace
Shutdown and remove any existing guest with the passed "--name" before cloning the original guest.

-h
--help
Show the help message and exit

--version
Show program's version number and exit

--check
Enable or disable some validation checks. See virt-install(1) for more details.

-q
--quiet
Suppress non-error output.

-d
--debug
Print debugging information to the terminal when running the install process. The debugging
information is also stored in "~/.cache/virt-manager/virt-clone.log" even if this parameter is
omitted.

EXAMPLES

       Clone the guest called "demo" on the default connection, auto generating a new name and disk clone path.

         # virt-clone \
              --original demo \
              --auto-clone

       Clone the guest called "demo" which has a single disk to copy

         # virt-clone \
              --original demo \
              --name newdemo \
              --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdemo.img

       Clone a QEMU guest with multiple disks

         # virt-clone \
              --connect qemu:///system \
              --original demo \
              --name newdemo \
              --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdemo.img \
              --file /var/lib/xen/images/newdata.img

       Clone a guest to a physical device which is at least  as  big  as  the  original  guests  disks.  If  the
       destination device is bigger, the new guest can do a filesystem resize when it boots.

         # virt-clone \
              --connect qemu:///system \
              --original demo \
              --name newdemo \
              --file /dev/HostVG/DemoVM \
              --mac 52:54:00:34:11:54

BUGS

       Please see <https://virt-manager.org/bugs>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  (C)  Fujitsu  Limited,  Copyright  (C)  Red  Hat, Inc, and various contributors.  This is free
       software. You may redistribute  copies  of  it  under  the  terms  of  the  GNU  General  Public  License
       "https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html".  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.