Cloning virtual machine disks

You can create clones of virtual machine disks by restoring the disks and attaching them to the same or a different virtual machine. In this case, the disks will be attached to the preferred virtual machine.

Limitations

  • Cloning unmanaged disks is not supported.

  • You can attach the cloned disks only to a virtual machine that is running the same operating system as the original virtual machine and that belongs to the same protection set as the original virtual machine.

Considerations

  • The name format of the cloned disk is hycu-disk-<UUID>-<DiskName>.
  • Only if you are cloning disks to the same virtual machine. After cloning the disks, make sure to change their UUIDs to be able to perform further tasks on the virtual machine.

Procedure

  1. In the Virtual Machines panel, click the virtual machine whose disks you want to restore. The Details section appears at the bottom of the screen.

    n Note  The Details section appears only if you click a virtual machine. Selecting the check box before the name of the virtual machine will not open the Details section.

  2. In the Details section, select the desired restore point, and then click  Restore VM.

  3. Select Clone Disks, and then click Next.

  4. From the list of disks that are available for the restore, select the ones that you want to restore, and then click Next.

  5. From the Restore from drop-down menu, select which tier you want to use for the restore. Your restore point can contain one or more tiers among which you can select:

    • Automatic: This option ensures the fastest and most cost-effective restore.
    • Backup (Snapshot)
    • Backup (Target)
    • Copy
    • Archive - daily
    • Archive - weekly
    • Archive - monthly
    • Archive - yearly

  6. From the Subscription drop-down menu, select the subscription that contains the virtual machine to which you want to attach the cloned disks.

  7. From the Resource group drop-down menu, select the resource group of the virtual machine to which you want to attach the cloned disks.

  8. From the Location drop-down menu, select the geographic region of the virtual machine to which you want to attach the cloned disks.

    i Important  If you select a region other than the original one, you will be charged for outbound data transfer. For details, see Azure pricing.

  9. From the Virtual machine drop-down menu, select the virtual machine to which you want to attach the cloned disks.

  10. Only if you want to change the cloned disk name. Under Disk name, for each disk whose name you want to change, do the following:

    1. Click  Edit Disk next to the name of the disk.
    2. In the New disk name field, enter a new name for the cloned disk.
    3. Click Save.

    4. n Note  You can always change the name of the disk back to the original one by clicking Undo New Disk Name next to the name of the disk whose name you changed.

  11. Click Validate to verify if the restore task can be run successfully.

  12. Click Restore, then copy files from restored drive to original location