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

Provided by: virtinst_0.600.4-3ubuntu2_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.
       An interactive mode is available with the --prompt option, but this will only ask for the minimum
       required options.

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.

-h, --help
Show the help message and exit

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

General Options
General configuration parameters that apply to all guest clones.

-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

Storage Configuration
-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.

--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'.

--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.

Networking Configuration
-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.

Miscellaneous Options
--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.

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

--force
Prevent interactive prompts. If the intended prompt was a yes/no prompt, always say yes. For any other
prompts, the application will exit.

--prompt
Specifically enable prompting for required information. Default prompting is off.

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

AUTHOR

       Written  by  Kazuki Mizushima, Cole Robinson, and a team of many other contributors. See the AUTHORS file
       in the source distribution for the complete list of credits.

BUGS

       Please see http://virt-manager.org/page/BugReporting

COPYRIGHT

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