How many time you need to run multiple copies of the same VM? Well, how do you act to achieve this task?
Answer: prepare your “master VM”, then copy whole directory as many times as needed, and finally register all “clones”, eventually changing names.
What is the problem with this? It takes a lot of space!
Can we try something different?
Answer: Yes, thanks to shortcuts/symlinks.
How? In this way:
1) Create your “master VM” (or take an existing one you wanna use as “master VM”)
2) Modify your virtual harddisk to indipendent-non persistent
3) Create your first “clone VM” directory
4) Copy “master VM” configuration file (.vmx) from “master directory” to “clone directory”
5) Shortcut your “master virtual HDs” (.vmdk) to “clone directory”
6) Eventually rename your shortcuts/symlinks to reflect real “master virtual HDs” names
7) Register “clone VM”
8) Enjoy
Great, uh? …What? Another problem: I want to make some changes on my “master VM” and reflect it on all “clone VMs”!
How? In this way:
1) Shutdown all “clone VMs” and your “master VM”
2) Change back your “master VM” virtual harddisk to indipendent-persistent
3) Power on your “master VM” and do all changes you like
4) Shutdown again your “master VM”
5) Change again your “master VM” virtual harddisk to indipendent-non persistent
6) Power on again all “clone VM”
7) Done: you have all your clones updated
Thanks to Ron McKelvey for posting this method on VMware web community.