Is cloning a VM with Veeam a sensible idea?

[davids355]

I have just installed a trial of Veeam backup and replication.

One thing I am interested in doing is cloning virtual machines - for example, I have a VM server 2012 standard, and want to update it then keep it as a template so I can create additional VMs without installing windows from scratch.

I see that Veeam offers to change GUID, but I understand there are other concerns - Hostname, IP address and SID.
Just wondering if cloning a VM this way is supported - or a good/bad idea, and if there are any other potential issues I should look out for?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello David,

Do you want to replicate/backup one of your VMs and keep it as a template? If you don't have any applications installed in this Windows Server (for example, Exchange, SQL Server etc.), then it's fine to do that, but, of course, you will have to change server's hostname and other parameters when you decide to re-use it.

Thank you!

[davids355]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Basically, I just have a standard server 2012 build.
I want to keep that standard build as a perminent template that I can update and so on - but wont install any apps on.
Then when I require a new windows VM, I can just copy that machine and then rename it and so on.

In fact I have already tried it, and I renamed computer name, changed IP address and set a new MAC address from HyperV for the VM and it seems to have worked. Is that ok?

Its really just to save the time it takes to load the VM.

I guess another concideration is changing the product key each time, I assume that can be done?

And also, are there any implications to manually changing the MAC address (I noticed otherwise, it jsut gives it the same one as the template machine)?

[Vitaliy S.]

In fact I have already tried it, and I renamed computer name, changed IP address and set a new MAC address from HyperV for the VM and it seems to have worked. Is that ok?

Yes, absolutely.

I guess another concideration is changing the product key each time, I assume that can be done?

You mean Windows activation key? Yes, this can also be done, quick google search returned me this blog post > http://www.petri.co.il/how-to-change-pr ... dows-8.htm

And also, are there any implications to manually changing the MAC address (I noticed otherwise, it jsut gives it the same one as the template machine)?

I don't see any issues with that as well, so you should be fine.

P.S. BTW, you can use VeeamZIP functionality to perform a quick ad-hoc backup of the Windows VM. This Windows template will be stored in a compressed and deduped format that would allow you to save some free space and then re-use this backup file with any Veeam installation.

[davids355]

^^Thanks, thats great.
I did come across one issue with SID - I cloned the template twice, then installed AD on one, and tried to add the other as a member server - it complained that the SID was the same.
So I just used sysprep to change it (first time I have ever used sysprep:-)).

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, hostname, static IP and SID parameters have to be changed. Thanks for the update!