Clone and attach?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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sansibarius
Posts: 2
Joined: 29. May 2009, 09:53
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Win7/Linux

Clone and attach?

Post by sansibarius »

I just build a VirtualBox-virtual image. (Ver 2.2.2, Host Win XP, Guest Win 7RC)
Now I want to multiply this image for different testings.

I cloned the existing VDI-file using "vboxmanage clonehd ... ..." which results in a new VDI-file.
Now how to I attach the clone to VirtualBox so I can start it in VirtualBox??

Sorry I am just at a loss...
Thanks and rgds
Sansibarius
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Clone and attach?

Post by mpack »

As you know, "clonehd" only clones the hard disk, not the VM. To use the cloned VDI in a new VM you need to manually create a new VM then attach the cloned VDI to it.

Also, you need to make sure that all the settings in the new VM precisely match the settings you chose for the old VM. Keep memory size, hard disk controller type, and network card type the same.

You need to give thought to how you intend to use the clone. If you want the guest OS to be unable to tell that something changed then you need to make sure (in particular) that the network MAC addresses in the two VMs are identical. However this means that you can't run the two VMs at the same time. If you want to run the VMs at the same time then the MAC addresses must be different... but a Windows guest regards this as a suspicious hardware change, possibly requiring reactivation. Activation may not be a problem for a Win7 beta guest, but it is a problem for other Windows guests and presumably for Win7 in the future, and my answer is addressing that audience too.
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