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<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="clone">
  <title>Cloning a Virtual Machine</title>
  
  <body>
    <p>You can create a full copy or a linked copy of an existing VM. This copy is called a <i>clone</i>. You might use a cloned VM to experiment with a VM configuration, to test different guest OS levels, or to back up a VM.</p>
    <p>To clone a VM:</p>
    <ol id="ol_ulp_zct_bcc">
      <li>
        <p>In <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>, click <uicontrol>Machines</uicontrol>. Ensure the VM you want to clone is not running.</p>
      </li>
      <li>
        <p>Right-click the VM name in the <uicontrol>Machines</uicontrol> list, and choose <b outputclass="bold">Clone...</b>.</p>
      </li>
      <li>Enter the following details for the clone.<ul id="ul_rkb_nct_bcc">
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Name:</b> A name for the cloned machine. </li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Path:</b> Choose a location for the cloned virtual machine, otherwise <ph
              conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> uses the default machines folder. </li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">MAC Address Policy:</b> Specifies whether to retain network card MAC addresses when
            cloning the VM.<p>The <b outputclass="bold">Generate New MAC Addresses For All Network Adapters</b> value
              assigns a new MAC address to each network card during cloning. This is the default setting. This is the
              best option when both the source VM and the cloned VM must operate on the same network. Other values
              enable you to retain the existing MAC addresses in the cloned VM.</p></li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Keep Disk Names:</b> Retains the disk image names when cloning the VM.</li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Keep Hardware UUIDs:</b> Retains the hardware universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)
            when cloning the VM. </li></ul></li>
      <li>Click <b outputclass="bold">Next</b>. The <b outputclass="bold">Clone Type</b> page is displayed.</li>
      <li>The <b outputclass="bold">Clone Type</b> option specifies whether to create a clone that is linked to the
        source VM or to create a fully independent clone:<ul id="ul_i1y_qn5_bcc">
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Full Clone:</b> Copies all dependent disk images to the new VM folder. A full clone
            can operate fully without the source VM. </li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Linked Clone:</b> Creates new differencing disk images based on the source VM disk
            images. If you select the current state of the source VM as the clone point, <ph
              conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> creates a new snapshot. </li>
        </ul></li>
    <li>Click <b outputclass="bold">Next</b>. If your VM has snapshots and you chose Full Clone, use the <b
          outputclass="bold">Snapshots</b> page to select the parts of the snapshot tree to clone with the VM.<ul
          id="ul_igj_t45_bcc">
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Current Machine State:</b> Clones the current state of the VM. Snapshots are not
            included. </li>
          <li><b outputclass="bold">Everything:</b> Clones the current machine state and all its snapshots.</li>
        </ul></li>

    <li><p>Click <b outputclass="bold">Finish</b> to start the clone operation. </p></li></ol>
    <p>The duration of the clone operation depends on the size and number of attached disk images. In addition, the
      clone operation saves all the differencing disk images of a snapshot. </p>
    <p>You can also use the <userinput>VBoxManage clonevm</userinput> command to clone a VM. See <xref href="../cli_topics/vboxmanage-clonevm.dita"/>.</p>
  </body>
  
</topic>
