How to Clone a Virtual Machine on VMware Fusion in Mac & macOS

Do you want to back up the virtual machines you created with VMware Fusion 12 Pro using the powerful Clone feature? So, I’ll show you how to clone VMs on your Apple Mac computers efficiently.

VMware Fusion virtualization software can create and install guest operating systems in the macOS environment. That’s why we know it as a versatile tool for managing virtual systems. In this article, I will examine both Full Clone and Linked Clone methods.

How to Copy or Replicate a Virtual Machine using Clone on VMware Fusion 12 Pro on Mac

Another great feature of VMware Fusion virtualization software that allows you to create virtual PCs and install guest operating systems in the macOS operating system is Clone.

Thanks to Clone, which is the easiest method to copy the guest operating systems you run on your Mac, you can easily replicate your existing virtual systems and include them in your existing projects without the need to create new virtual machines.

To clone a ready virtual machine, first of all, your guest system must be powered off and not suspended. Fusion software will warn you when you try to clone the virtual machine while it is running.

There are two types of methods for duplicating a VM in Fusion software: Full Clone and Linked Clone.

1. Full Clone: It is a structure that works entirely independently of the cloned virtual machine and does not share anything with the primary virtual machine. The disk space of a VM copied with a complete clone is the same as the master virtual machine. In this case, the disk space of your host computer will decrease as much as the disk space of the host virtual machine.
2. Linked Clone: This structure, which is used to replicate virtual machines rapidly, does not take up the disk space of the host computer but is dependent on the primary virtual machine and constantly shares resources. A VM replicated using a linked clone is created from a snapshot of the master VM. Therefore, information containing only virtual machine data is made on the host disk.

When Clone types are compared in terms of system performance, the system performance is less than the Full Clone structure since the Linked Clone structure provides guaranteed disk space protection. Therefore, the system performance of a virtual computer replicated with Full Clone will be higher.

Comparing VMware Fusion Clone Types

Of course, we use these clone features when using VMware Fusion on our Mac PCs. However, we need to know the basic features and usage scenarios between both. That’s why I created a comparison chart for you to suit your different needs.

Creating a Full Clone

When you want to replicate an existing Windows 10 or Ubuntu guest operating system, you should create a Full Clone if you wish each system to work independently of the other.

Steps:

Step 1

When you try to create a Clone while your Windows 10 guest machine is running, you will see a warning that you cannot operate while the virtual machine is on or suspended, as in the image below.

In this case, click OK to close the warning window and then shut down your guest operating system.

Step 2

After turning off your guest machine, click Virtual Machine / Create Full Clone in the tool menu.

Step 3

In the window asking where you want to save the Clone of the virtual machine, select your location and click the Save button.

Step 4

Wait while a copy of your Windows 10 host virtual machine is being created at the location you specified. This process may take some time, depending on the hardware performance of your host Mac PC, so do not end the process and wait.

Step 5

After creating a new clone for your Windows 10 virtual computer, open the Library of the virtualization program and click on Show Finder to open the location of your VMs.

When you examine the file sizes of your main virtual machine and your cloned machine in the location where your virtual machines are installed, you can see the space occupied on the disk of your host computer.

Step 6

You can see that there is no problem when you run the Windows 10 virtual computer that you copied with the Clone.

Deleting a Full Clone

After creating a clone of Fusion on macOS, if you want to free up space on your host computer’s disk and you don’t need it, you may need to delete it. Because the space occupied by a VM copied with Clone is as much as the disk size of the host machine, it takes up a lot of space on your host disk.

Open the virtual machine library, right-click on the Clone you created, click Delete, and finally, click the Move to Trash button to clear the files in the warning window that opens.

Creating a Linked Clone

One of the most significant benefits of creating a linked clone is that it does not take up as much space on the host disk as the size of the primary virtual machine. Therefore, you can use this method to replicate virtual machines quickly.

Steps:

Step 1

Likewise, while your guest operating system is turned off, click Virtual Machine / Create Linked Clone from the tool menu.

Step 2

For Linked Clone, specify the location where the guest machine’s files will be saved and click the Save button.

Step 3

Go to the location where your VMs are installed, and when you check the file sizes, you can see that the guest machine that you copied with the Linked Clone takes up very little space on the host disk.

Step 4

You can check if there are any problems when you run the Windows 10 guest machine that you created with Linked Clone.

Deleting a Linked Clone

Since the linked Clone is created from a snapshot of the parent virtual machine, simply deleting it from the Library is not enough. So, you also need to delete the host snapshot.

However, the point you need to pay attention to here is that if you delete the snapshot of the host, the guest machine you created with Linked Clone will not work.

Step 1

Likewise, open the Fusion virtual machine library, right-click on the VM you created, and click Delete. When the Remove Virtual Machine warning window opens, you will no longer need the guest machine’s files, so click the Delete Permanently button.

Step 2

View your Windows 10 host virtual machine and open Snapshot Manager.

Step 3

Select the snapshot named Linked Clone of Windows 10 and right-click on it, then click Delete Snapshot. Click Delete again to confirm the deletion in the warning window that opens.

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Conclusion

As a result, VMware Fusion 12 Pro allows us to back up virtual machines by cloning them on macOS. With this powerful guidance, we can do our work without interruption and without losing data.

Whether you choose a Full Clone or a Linked Clone, we can easily replicate our virtual systems. It is essential to understand the differences between the two methods and know how to create and delete them. For this reason, we can manage our disk space well and also make better use of system performance.