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3. Clone a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtual Machine

In the previous section, you created a Red Hat Enterprise Linux template complete with pre-configured storage, networking and operating system settings. Now, you will use this template to deploy a pre-installed virtual machine.
To clone a Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machine from a template
  1. Navigate to the Tree pane and click Expand All. Click the VMs icon in the Default cluster under the Default data center. On the Virtual Machines tab, click New Server.
    Clone a Linux server
    Figure 25. Clone a Linux server

    1. On the General tab, select your newly created Red Hat Enterprise Linux template from the Based on Template list.
    2. Enter a suitable Name and Description, and accept the default values inherited from the template in the rest of the fields. You can change them if needed.
    3. Click the Resource Allocation tab. On the Provisioning field, click the drop down menu and select the Clone option. Set the clone method under Disk to Preallocated.
  2. Retain all other default settings and click OK to create the virtual machine. The virtual machine displays in the Virtual Machines list with a status of "Image Locked" until the virtual disk is created. The virtual disk and networking settings are inherited from the template, and do not have to be reconfigured.
  3. Click the Run icon to turn it on. This time, the Run Once steps are not required as the operating system has already been installed onto the virtual machine hard drive. Click the green Console button to connect to the virtual machine.
You have now learned how to create Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines from scratch and based on a template. Next, you will learn how to access these virtual machines from a user portal.