Sangfor Cloud Platform (SCP)

Enterprise Cloud Computing Platform Built on Business-Centric HCI.
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6.11.3
Sangfor Cloud Platform (SCP) {{ breadTitle }} Virtual Machine Service Clone VM
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Clone VM

{{ $t('productDocDetail.updateTime') }}: 2025-12-18

Introduction

The VM cloning supports three methods: instant full cloning, full cloning, and linked cloning. The feature enables the rapid creation of a new VM with the same configuration as the source VM. It is applicable for scenarios such as bulk business deployment, building test environment, and disaster recovery environment replication. The operational costs for repetitive configuration can be significantly reduced, and the business launch efficiency can be improved.

Comparison Table of the Three Cloning Methods

Item

Full Clone

Linked Clone

Instant Full Clone (Recommended)

Clone Speed

Depends on the source VM's data volume. The new VM can only start after all data is fully cloned.

Supports starting up VM in seconds after cloning. Only configuration information is cloned, and the source VM shares the base data with the new VM.

Supports starting up VM in seconds after cloning. The new VM is created rapidly based on a storage based snapshot, and full data is synced asynchronously in the backend.

Performance Impact

The new VM is fully independent of the source VM after cloning, without performance association.

The new VM relies on the base data of the source VM after cloning. Its performance is affected by the source VM's load.

The performance of the new VM is not affected after cloning. Synchronization in backend does not occupy business resources.

Space Usage

Occupies the same amount of space as the source VM after cloning. The data is fully independent.

Occupies minimal space initially, storing only new differential data.

Occupies space similar to the source VM ultimately. Space usage is low during synchronization.

Use Restrictions

No restrictions on the storage type for source and cloned VMs (supports virtual storage, external storage, etc.).

The storage location for source and cloned VMs must be virtual storage.

The storage location for source and cloned VMs must be virtual storage.

Applicable Scenarios

Critical services requiring independent VM deployment in production environments or with high data isolation requirements.

Test environments, temporary verification scenarios, or non-critical services that are insensitive to performance.

Scenarios requiring bulk VM deployment in production or test environments or where both performance and efficiency are required.

Core Identifier Change Description

• UUID: A new UUID will be automatically generated when using three cloning methods. The source VM's UUID remains unchanged. If the UUID-based licensing is required for business (Example: software licensing binding), the licensing information must be reconfigured after cloning.

• Windows SID: By default, the cloned Windows VM keeps the same SID as the source VM. To join a domain controller or to avoid permission conflicts, modify the SID by using the Reset SID feature after cloning. No SID exists in Linux systems, so no relevant impact occurs after cloning.

Constraints and Restrictions

  1.  Storage type constraints:

• Linked cloning and instant full cloning support only virtual storage instead of external storage or local storage.

• Full cloning supports all storage types, including virtual storage, external storage (iSCSI/FC), and local storage.

  1.  Source VM status constraints:

• The source VM must be in a powered off or running status. If it is in a suspending or an error status, it must be restored to a normal status before cloning.

• If a source VM is configured with snapshots or CDP policies, the snapshots must be deleted, and the CDP policies must be disabled first. Otherwise, the cloning task will fail.

  1.  Feature support constraints:

• Encrypted VMs and VMs configured with PCIe devices (Example: GPU, encryption card) in passthrough mode do not support cloning.

• For a source VM configured with shared virtual disk, the shared virtual disk mapping will be lost after cloning, and the shared virtual disk must be rebound.

• VMs cloned through linked cloning does not support operations such as cross-storage migration, disk capacity expansion, or live migration and are only applicable for temporary scenarios.

  1.  Cluster version constraints: Instant full clone is only supported by resource pools that are managed by HCI 6.7.0 or later. For versions earlier than HCI 6.7.0, only full clone and linked clone are supported.
  2.  VMs in the VMware resource pool support only full clone instead of linked clone or instant full clone.

Precautions

  1.  Network conflict prevention: Cloned VMs inherit the NIC configuration (IP address and MAC address) of the source VMs by default. To avoid IP address conflicts within the same subnet, manually modify the IP address (or enable DHCP for auto assignment) and specify the MAC address after cloning.
  2.  Data consistency assurance: Do not perform write operations (Example: write to database, modify file) on the source VM during cloning. It is recommended to execute cloning during off-peak hours to ensure cloned data integrity.
  3.  Performance impact control: For full cloning, it occupies storage IO and network bandwidth. It is recommended to clone up to 5 VMs at the same time per cluster to prevent impacting production services.
  4.  VMs cloned through linked cloning share base data with the source VM. If the source VM is deleted or damaged, the data loss will occur on the cloned VM. Therefore, VMs cloned through linked cloning cannot be used in production environments.
  5.  Software licensing adaptation: For software dependent on UUID, hostname, or MAC address (Example: Oracle database, third-party licensing tool), reactivation or license configuration update are required after cloning.
  6.  Tool compatibility: Cloned VMs automatically inherit the vmTools configuration from the source VM. If the tool is uninstalled or the tool version is incompatible, manually install the tool in corresponding version to prevent hardware identification error (Example: unavailable NIC or disk).

Steps

Step 1.Log in to SCP and go to Resource Center > VMs.

Step 2.Locate the VM you want to edit, click the more options button (···) in the Operation column and select Clone.

Step 3.Go to the bulk clone configuration page. (All selected VMs will use the same cloning method and basic parameters during bulk cloning).

Step 4.Configure the information as needed. For detailed parameter descriptions and operation suggestions, see the xx section of the Create VM documentation.[21]

Step 5. After confirming all configurations are correct, click OK. The cloning task will be submitted.

Concurrency note: By default, 1 concurrent migration task per datastore and 2 concurrent migration tasks per node are supported. To increase the number of concurrent migration tasks (up to 10 tasks), please modify it as described in the xx section.[22]

Step 6. After cloning is complete locate the cloned VM in the VM list. Manually modify the network configuration (IP address, MAC address) and verify the data integrity and service availability (Example: log in the system to check files, start business services).