Please refer to the following steps on how to create Linked Clone with 1 Master Image (Windows 2012 R2 Server) without vCenter in my Lab on SSD Hard Disk
Install Windows 2012 R2 Server with latest patches and do run SYSPREP and save it for our Master Image
C:\Windows\System32\SysPrep\SysPrep.exe
Check “Generalize” to generate a new SID, and Select Shutdown.
**Click **OK and once the SysPrep is completed, server will be shutdown.
Login to vSphere 6 Host using SSH Client to find out the VMID for the Template Image created
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
84 AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2 [240] AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2.vmx windows8Server64Guest vmx-11
VMID of the template image is 84, and create a SnapShot on the template image using the following commands
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 84 "BASE" "Master Image for LinkClone"
Create Snapshot:
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.get 84
Get Snapshot:
|-ROOT
--Snapshot Name : BASE
--Snapshot Id : 1
--Snapshot Desciption : Master Image for LinkClone
--Snapshot Created On : 5/29/2016 14:56:32
--Snapshot State : powered off
Repeat the following steps for new VM provisioned from Master Image using Linked Clone
Create a new Directory for the new VM, and copy the SnapShot (-000001*.vmdk) and configuration file (vmx) from template
src="/vmfs/volumes/240/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2"
dst="/vmfs/volumes/240/vCenter"
mkdir $dst
cat $src/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2.vmx | grep fileName
scsi0:0.fileName = "AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2_0-000001.vmdk"
cp $src/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2_0-000001*.vmdk $dst
cp $src/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2.vmx $dst
Rename the Copied VMDK file
mv $dst/*-delta.vmdk $dst/vCenter-000001-delta.vmdk
mv $dst/*000001.vmdk $dst/vCenter-000001.vmdk
mv $dst/*.vmx $dst/vCenter.vmx
ls $dst
vCenter-000001-delta.vmdk vCenter-000001.vmdk vCenter.vmx
Remove the following lines using sed
sed -i '/sched.swap.derivedName/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/uuid.bios/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/uuid.location/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/extendedConfigFile/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/nvram/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/migrate.hostLog/d' ./*.vmx
sed -i '/ethernet0.generatedAddress/d' ./*.vmx
Change the Display Name and the location of the VMDK file
sed -i -e '/displayName =/ s/= .*/= "'vCenter'"/' ./*.vmx
sed -i -e '/scsi0:0.fileName =/ s/= .*/= "'vCenter-000001.vmdk'"/' ./*.vmx
Open vCenter-000001.vmdk file and modify parentFileNameHint = THE MASTER IMAGE FILE RW 209715200 VMFSSPARSE “NEW -DELTA.VM
vi vCenter-000001.vmdk
Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="UTF-8"
CID=dd8e31e1
parentCID=b7de00bf
isNativeSnapshot="no"
createType="vmfsSparse"
parentFileNameHint="/vmfs/volumes/240/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2/AVENTIS-TEMPLATE-WIN2012R2_0.vmdk"
# Extent description
RW 209715200 VMFSSPARSE "vCenter-000001-delta.vmdk"
# The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.longContentID = "6a5d50785c6e1eff29e84dcedd8e31e1"
Register the VM and Power On
vim-cmd solo/registervm $dst/vCenter.vmx
87
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 87
Powering on VM:
The new VM will only consume very little spaces
root@esx:/vmfs/volumes/572ef3c5-0518c917-6aa8-9c8e99294f30/vCenter] ls -lh
total 4764696
-rw------- 1 root root 8.5K May 29 19:43 nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 384.2M May 29 19:50 vCenter-000001-delta.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 384 May 29 19:42 vCenter-000001.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 4.0G May 29 19:42 vCenter-0f23eacf.vswp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 29 19:36 vCenter.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.2K May 29 19:42 vCenter.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root 0 May 29 19:42 vCenter.vmx.lck
-rw------- 1 root root 3.8K May 29 19:42 vCenter.vmxf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.1K May 29 19:42 vCenter.vmx~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49.9K May 29 19:37 vmware-1.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 316.3K May 29 19:43 vmware.log
-rw------- 1 root root 169.0M May 29 19:42 vmx-vCenter-254012111-1.vswp
I will try to provision few Servers for Citrix XenDesktop lab soon to see what is the maximum number of VM that i can provision before experience slowness using linked Clone