CentOS 7 Server Deployment Cookbook

Cloning a virtual machine

Since a virtual machine is ultimately nothing more than data files, these can easily be copied and shared. This is useful because you can set up a gold server exactly how you want it and then make copies that are used for different purposes. However, using the cp command isn't the way to go about it. This recipe shows you the correct way to duplicate a machine with a process called cloning.

Getting ready

This recipe requires a virtual machine set up as described in the previous recipe. While the cloning process doesn't require administrative privileges per se, privileges may be needed to access the machine's files depending on where they are located. By default, the files are stored at /var/lib/libvirt/images, which requires ...