CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

[mpack]

Have you used snapshots at all in that VM?

[mdurisseau]

Good day, sir,

I don't use snapshots...I had noticed the difficulty in getting good clones with those.

[mpack]

Well, in that case I'm stumped. In fact I already said everything I usefully could in my previous message. Unless lots of other people come forward to say that CloneVDI is corrupting clones, then I can only assume that there is something odd about your setup.

I assume you are aware that VBox v4.1 now supports cloning of disks and entire VMs from the GUI.

[mdurisseau]

I was not aware of that...thanks for the head's up. I would have to say there isn't anything odd about my setup, though. Not sure what to look for that would be different...UPDATE: I did mount that .vdi to a VM and took a look in Windows XP's Disk Management tool. It shows the drive as 'Unallocated,' and I know that drive worked before the clone and compress. Maybe that's another clue?

Well, in that case I'm stumped. In fact I already said everything I usefully could in my previous message. Unless lots of other people come forward to say that CloneVDI is corrupting clones, then I can only assume that there is something odd about your setup.

I assume you are aware that VBox v4.1 now supports cloning of disks and entire VMs from the GUI.

[mpack]

How are you running CloneVDI? I seem to recall you being a Mac host user - though your profile is currently blank.

[mdurisseau]

I am a Mac host user...and I'll fix that profile...Would that really make any difference?

How are you running CloneVDI? I seem to recall you being a Mac host user - though your profile is currently blank.

[mpack]

Well naturally it may be relevant, because it isn't the Windows host environment the app is designed for. You didn't answer the question of how you are running CloneVDI. Are you running CloneVDI inside an XP VM and talking to a shared folder, or are you using Wine and talking directly to files in a local hard disk?

[mdurisseau]

I didn't see the question, but I can answer that readily...I'm running CloneVDI inside and XP VM and talking to a shared folder.

Well naturally it may be relevant, because it isn't the Windows host environment the app is designed for. You didn't answer the question of how you are running CloneVDI. Are you running CloneVDI inside an XP VM and talking to a shared folder, or are you using Wine and talking directly to files in a local hard disk?

[mpack]

I didn't see the question, but I can answer that readily...I'm running CloneVDI inside and XP VM and talking to a shared folder.

In that case, haven't we already had that discussion? That is the exact scenario in which the cloned VDI file gets filled with zero bytes, and it's come up at least twice before in this thread. I presume the cause is either a bug in the OS X shared folder feature, or some kind of folder permissions problem.

No promises of course, but I'm told it works better under Wine/Winebottler.

[mdurisseau]

That answers the question, then! One can't use CloneVDI on a shared folder while the .vdi is running, if I am reading and understanding this correctly. I will have to try the Wine solution...

Thanks so much for your help!

I didn't see the question, but I can answer that readily...I'm running CloneVDI inside and XP VM and talking to a shared folder.

In that case, haven't we already had that discussion? That is the exact scenario in which the cloned VDI file gets filled with zero bytes, and it's come up at least twice before in this thread. I presume the cause is either a bug in the OS X shared folder feature, or some kind of folder permissions problem.

No promises of course, but I'm told it works better under Wine/Winebottler.

[mpack]

One can't use CloneVDI on a shared folder while the .vdi is running

I've only had that reported by Mac OS X host users running CloneVDI inside a VM, and there was no "while the .vdi is running" caveat mentioned by them. Of course CloneVDI will normally (all platforms) refuse to clone any VDI it can't open for exclusive access, which would certainly include those locked "while the VM is running". If that was a contributing factor here then that could certainly be our potential permissions problem.

Instructions for working with WineBottler was given a couple of dozen messages back, or so.
[ Edit ] In fact it was longer ago than I thought, but here it is.

[saberman]

Is there a way to specify the UUID that the cloned image will have?

I am using a base vdi file to clone test machines. I will be using Sysprep before using CloneVDI so the cloned drives will allow for entering a license key and machine name. The machines are already defined to VirtualBox and I just want to replace the vdi file with a "clean" version to start testing.

The cloned machines need to have the same UUID as the test machines they are replacing.

[mpack]

Is there a way to specify the UUID that the cloned image will have?

I'm afraid not. You are given the option to keep the old UUID, or for a new one to be generated and assigned. You are not given the option to specify a third party UUID.

The cloned machines need to have the same UUID as the test machines they are replacing.

Um, CloneVDI does not clone machines, it only clones hard disks. This is an important distinction, because e.g. in the Windows 7 case it is the act of changing the machine UUID that triggers reactivation. The hard disk UUID is less important with that OS.

[saberman]

I guess I am a little confused.

In the VirtualBox.xml file the two UUIDs of interest are the MachineEntry uuid and the HardDisk uuid.

The <machine name>.xml file contains an Image uuid for the HardDisk associated with the machine.

Now for this to work the Image UUID in the <machine name>.xml file must match a HardDisk uuid in the VirtualBox.xml.

Doesn't the uuid of the cloned virtual hard drive file itself also have to match the Image uuid for the HardDisk associated with the machine to be able to simply replace the existing virtual hard drive file by putting it in the same directory with the same file name as the old virtual hard drive?

[mpack]

These are not CloneVDI questions, so I would prefer not to have a prolonged discussion of VirtualBox UUID use here.

First, FYI and to avoid this discussion getting more confusing: your comments apply to v3 file systems. VirtualBox v4 organises things differently. In particular the media registry is stored locally, in the <machine>.vbox file (note that the extension changed, but internally it's still xml). VirtualBox.xml retains a media registry for backwards compatibility reasons and as a home for drives that no longer belong to any VM.

But yes, the UUID of the drive has to match the UUID for that drive listed in the media registry (whereever the media registry is stored). Perfectly correct, and CloneVDI can ensure that UUID is maintained, but that's merely a VirtualBox housekeeping issue, not important in the discussion of what causes Win7 to want to be reactivated.