Clone virtual machines (as VMs or templates) on VMware vSphere 6.7

2. Clone from a template

2.1. Convert a virtual machine to a template

To avoid altering a virtual machine, you have the option of converting it as a template.
Typically, you will preconfigure a virtual machine and then convert it to a template.

To do this, right-click on the name of the desired virtual machine, then click: Template -> Convert to Template.

Confirm the conversion of the virtual machine to a template by clicking Yes.

Once the virtual machine is converted as a template, its icon will change and several actions will be disabled: power actions, snapshot management, ...

As you can see, several actions (including those to manage the VM's power) have been disabled.

2.2. Create a new virtual machine from a template

To create a new virtual machine from a template, right-click on the desired template and click: New VM from This Template.

In the "Deploy from Template" wizard that appears, provide a name for the new virtual machine and select where you want to store it.

Select the compute resource (VMware ESXi hypervisor) that will be used to run the new virtual machine.

Select the storage (datastore) where the new virtual machine will be stored.

Select the clone options you want.

Note that it is recommended to check the "Customize the operating system" box to be able to choose a customization specification for the VM where you have enabled the generation of a new security identifier (SID).
Indeed, this will allow you to be sure that each virtual machine created from this template will have a different security identifier (SID).

If you checked the "Customize the operating system" box, select the VM customization specification you want to use to automatically customize the new virtual machine.

If you checked the "Customize this virtual machine's hardware" box, you will be able to adapt the virtual hardware of this new virtual machine if you wish.

Finally, a summary will be displayed.

While cloning your model into a virtual machine, you will see the "Clone virtual machine" task appear.

Once cloning is completed, the status of the "Clone virtual machine" task will change to "Completed" and the virtual machine will start automatically if you have checked the corresponding option in the wizard.

The Windows session opens.

Once the session is open, if you had selected a customization specification in the cloning wizard, wait 1 minute and you will see that the virtual machine will restart on its own the first time.

Wait while it restarts (due to the use of Sysprep in the background).

Then, the "Preparing" message will appear for a few minutes.

Once the automatic customization of this virtual machine is complete, Windows will start normally and the Windows session will open.

The virtual machine is now operational.

2.3. Convert a template to a virtual machine

Previously, you converted a virtual machine (VM) into a template.
To convert your template into a virtual machine (or in other words, do the opposite action from earlier), you will need to right-click on the name of your model and click on: Convert to Virtual Machine.

Select the VMware ESXi hypervisor (computing resource) whose system resources (CPU, RAM, ...) should be used to run this virtual machine.

To finish, click Finish.

The desired template has been converted to a virtual machine.