Avoiding Network
Identity Collisions after Instant Clone Operations
To avoid a
network conflict between a source virtual machine and its instant clone, you
must disable at least one of the two conflicting virtual NICs until you
complete network customization in the guest operating system of the instant
clone. Here are some common approaches:
If the source virtual machine
is frozen, its virtual NIC is effectively disabled, and you can reconfigure the
guest network settings of the instant clone at any time before the source
virtual machine is thawed.
If you derive the instant clone
from the current running point of the source virtual machine, you can set the
connected
property of
the virtual NIC backing to
false
,
which disables it in the source before you start the instant clone operation.
Then you re-enable the virtual NIC after the instant clone operation completes.
After you customize the network settings in the guest operating system of the
instant clone, you must re-enable the virtual NIC in the instant clone as well.
This approach requires that you tolerate a network interruption until the
instant clone operation is complete.
To avoid a network
interruption, you can issue the instant clone operation with an
InstantCloneSpec
that
specifies that the virtual NIC in the instant clone will be disconnected. The
virtual NIC in the source virtual machine is not affected. After you complete
guest operating system customization in the instant clone, you set the
connected
property of
its virtual NIC back to
true
,
and the instant clone operates under its new network identity.
In any case where you change the network identity
settings in the guest operating system of the instant clone, you must reset the network
stack for the virtual NIC to cause it to adopt the new settings. You can do this by
invoking the
VirtalMachineGuestCustomizationManager.StartGuestNetwork_Task
method after you customize the clone's network settings, or you do the reset from the
guest operating system, as with a physical machine. For more information, see Restarting the Guest Network After Customization and Resetting the Network Stack in a Virtual Machine.