Tag Archives: virtual machine

VMware vSphere: Create a linked clone with Powercli

Hi,

linked clones have some advantages:

New virtual machines are rapidly deployed. The initial task is only to reference to a snapshot of an existing virtual machine. No virtual disk file(s) will be copied at this time.
They save disk space. Because only the space difference to the origin snapshot is allocated.

I found no option in the vSphere respective the Webclient to create one, but PowerCli provides this. Lets do it.
Connect to vCenter

Connect-VIServer vcenter.subdomain.domain.local

Define the virtual machine which is the origin of the linked clone, and the Snapshotname on which the linked clone based.

$sOriginVM="mastervm"
$sOriginVMSnapshotName="mastervm_linkedclone_snap"

VMware

The BIOS of the VMware Workstation does not support to boot from a USB drive or stick which is connected to a virtual machine.

But there is a workaround:-) Use the Plop Boot Manager. Download the latest ZIP File and extract the plpbt.iso file. This contains a CD image which starts plop boot manager. Connect the iso file as a virtual CDROM to your virtual machine.
Continue reading VMware Workstation: Boot a virtual machine from a USB drive/stick →