Provided by: virtinst_4.0.0-1_all bug

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 ORIGINAL_GUEST
              Name of the original guest to be cloned. This guest must be shut off.

       --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 of 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 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  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, --file PATH
              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
              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.

SEE ALSO

       virt-sysprep(1),   virsh(1),   virt-install(1),   virt-manager(1),   the  project  website
       https://virt-manager.org

                                                                                    VIRT-CLONE(1)