Patent ID: 8756598
Filing Date: 2014-06-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for separately cloning a virtual drive of a source virtual machine and configuration data of the source virtual machine for combination into a cloned virtual machine, comprising: populating a datastore of a storage controller with a copy of a source virtual drive image file, of a source virtual machine that is to be cloned, to create a copied source virtual drive image file; generating a diskless virtual machine in a destination container based upon configuration data of the source virtual machine; invoking the storage controller to clone the copied source virtual drive image file to create a cloned source virtual drive image file in the datastore; invoking a second storage controller to clone the diskless virtual machine to create a cloned diskless virtual machine in the destination container, the second storage controller cloning the diskless virtual machine concurrently with the storage controller cloning the copied source virtual drive image file; and combining the cloned source virtual drive image file, from the datastore, with the cloned diskless virtual machine in the destination container to create a cloned virtual machine, the combining comprising mapping the cloned source virtual drive image file to the cloned diskless virtual machine.