Freezing the Source
Virtual Machine for an Instant Clone Operation
Before you start
the instant clone operation, you issue a VMware Tools command in the guest
operating system, which freezes the source virtual machine. This is only needed
one time, prior to the first instant clone operation. After that, the source
virtual machine remains frozen. When VMware Tools receives the command to
freeze the virtual machine, it passes the command through a back door to the
host hypervisor.
The command to freeze the
virtual machine depends on the guest operating system.
- For a Linux guest operating system, either of the following commands will freeze the virtual machine:
- vmware-rpctool "instantclone.freeze"
- vmtoolsd -cmd "instantclone.freeze"
- For a Windows guest operating system, the following command will freeze the virtual machine:
- C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\vmtoolsd.exe --cmd "instantclone.freeze"
When a virtual machine is
frozen, the hypervisor prevents future context switches to the guest operating
system, which in effect stops the virtual machine's clock, although the virtual
machine status continues to indicate that it is running. You can determine
whether the virtual machine is frozen by examining the
runtimeinfo.InstantCloneFrozen
flag.