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How to copy VMware virtual machine to another PC

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1. How to copy a virtual machine to another PC using Snapshots in VMware
2. How to copy a virtual machine to another PC from folders in VMware

Virtualization is undoubtedly one of the technologies that has helped us most as administrators or IT personnel to cope with various situations of testing, management and configuration of both new operating systems and applications. Obviously we do not mention the possibilities to configure new hardware or network structures being the best of all this that the real infrastructure will not be affected at any time nor do we need to buy additional hardware, this has a positive impact in economic terms..

A point to discuss that is also essential in working with virtual machines, is the option to copy or clone an existing virtual machine to use it either on another PC or use it on it without affecting the original virtual machine , for this there are several methods that TechnoWikis will explain in detail.

Note
For this process TechnoWikis recommends using VMware Workstation Pro whose current edition is 15.5 and you can find it at the following link:
VMware Workstation Pro

Next, we will see how we can make a copy of a VMware virtual machine to another PC in different ways. We also leave you the video tutorial with all the steps to help you with it:

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1. How to copy a virtual machine to another PC using Snapshots in VMware

Step 1

The snapshots or storage of states, give us the possibility to save the current state of a virtual machine for different possibilities such as:
  • Access that specific state either in terms of configuration.
  • Clone that state to be used in other virtual machines.
  • Use as restore points and more.
Step 2

For this case, we will first configure the virtual machine as we wish (in terms of configuration, applications and more) and then, it must be turned off so that the process since if we do it with the machine on, not all changes and configurations will be stored. image
Step 3

To create the virtual machine snapshot we turn it off using the traditional operating system method used or from the VM / Power / Shut Down Guest menu: image
Step 4

Once the virtual machine is turned off, we will right click on it and select the Snapshot / Snapshot Manager option: image
Step 5

The following wizard will be displayed where the current state of the virtual machine will be indicated:

image

Step 6

There we click on the “Take Snapshot” button to proceed with the snapshot and the following window will be displayed where we will assign a name to the snapshot as well as it is possible to add a description of it:

image

Step 7

Again we click on the “Take Snapshot” button and we will see that the snapshot is created with the assigned name and within which will be the configuration that we have determined:

image

Step 8

The next step is to select the snapshot created:

image

Step 9

There we click on the “Clone” button to proceed with the cloning of the machine to be used on another computer or on the same PC if it is the case, when clicking on this button we will see the following:

image

Step 10

This is the VMware cloning wizard and there we click Next and it will now be possible:
  • Select an existing snapshot to clone
  • Clone the current state of the virtual machine to clone

image

Step 11

We click Next and now select the full cloning option which will clone all the settings of the selected virtual machine:

image

Step 12

Again we click on Next and we will define the name and location of the virtual machine that we are going to clone:

image

Step 13

Click on Finish to complete the process and the cloning process in VMware will be given:

image

Step 14

When this process ends we will see the following:

image

Step 15

We click on Close and then we will access the cloning window again where we click on Close to exit it:

image

Step 16

We can see the cloned machine in VMware ready to be used: image
Step 17

There we click on “Power on this virtual machine” for its execution and thus verify that it is functional: image
Step 18

With this process we can clone the virtual machine on the same PC, the question now is How to use it on another PC ?, TechnoWikis gives you the answer, for this you turn off the virtual machine and go to the File / Export to OVF menu: image
Step 19

The following will be displayed where we will define the path where the OVF file will be hosted: image
Step 20

This will start the export process of the virtual machine that we have cloned:

image

Step 21

Once this process comes to an end, we can go to the location where the virtual machine OVF file was exported: image
Step 22

This is copied to a USB medium and from the other PC we access VMware and there we will go to the File / Open menu: image
Step 23

In the displayed window we will select the OVF file that we have previously exported: image
Step 24

We click Open and we will assign name and location of the machine to be imported:

image

Step 25

We click on Import and we will give way to the import process of the selected machine:

image

Step 26

Once finished we can see the imported machine ready to be used: image

2. How to copy a virtual machine to another PC from folders in VMware


This is a process that involves copying the folder where the virtual machine is created during its creation to later select the configuration file of the machine, the ideal is that this process is done with the virtual machine turned off since I know if it is on or Suspended will not load boot parameters and it will be impossible to start.
Step 1

By default, VMware hosts virtual machines created in the following directory:
 C: \ Users \ user \ Documents \ Virtual Machines 
Step 2

There we locate the folder with the name of the virtual machine to copy, right click on it and select Copy or use the following keys:

+ C Ctrl + C

image
Step 3

Once copied, we go to the destination directory and there we use the following keys or right click / Paste:

+ V Ctrl + V

image

Step 4

Once copied we can edit your name so as not to conflict with IP addresses and other VMware variables: image
Step 5

It is also necessary to rename the .vmx file of the machine since it will be assigned the name of the original virtual machine, after this we right click on it and select the option “Open with VMware Workstation”: image
Step 6

This will open the virtual machine created either on the local computer or on a remote computer: image
Step 7

There we simply proceed to start the machine and the following message will be displayed where we define if the machine has been moved or copied: image
Step 8

We click on “I Copies It” to confirm that it has been copied and the process will continue: image

With either of these two methods, it will be possible to copy our VMware virtual machines to other computers or locally..


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