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hey guys welcome to how to do computers
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i'm mike and today we're going over
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templates and cloning in proxmox this
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can be done with vms as well as
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containers and it will save you an
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absolute ton of time with deploying
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multiple instances of the same os the
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first thing you'll want to do is set up
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a golden image for the vm or container
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you want to clone in my case here it's a
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windows server 2019 virtual machine but
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the process is similar for pretty much
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any os cloning a windows vm does however
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require a few extra steps then cloning a
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linux machine but we'll go over those in
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a minute
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first i'd like to go over the difference
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between cloning from a template and
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cloning from an existing vm each one has
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its pros and cons for both you'll start
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off the same you'll set up a vm and
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install the os then you'll make all the
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configuration changes and install all of
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the things that you think that the
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copies will need like a favorite browser
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a guest agent like the proxmox qemu
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agent and of course all updates and or
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repositories you might need now you have
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two options you can convert this to a
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template which can be used to make
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clones or you can leave it as a virtual
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machine and clone it from the vm itself
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when you convert the vm to a template it
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effectively stops being a vm in that you
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can no longer power it on and use it the
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drawback of this is that you'll have no
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way of applying updates installing
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different software or applying
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configurations to the template you would
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have to create a new template to do that
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the greatest benefit to using a template
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is creating what's called a linked clone
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what this does is it allows you to
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create a clone that uses the template as
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a sort of base so that the clone won't
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need to have its own copy of the os
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files or anything else that you've saved
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to the original template it will simply
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read them from the template itself this
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will end up saving a lot of space on
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your storage especially if you plan on
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making many instances of this machine
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keep in mind if you choose to go this
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route you won't be able to delete the
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template if there are any linked clones
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running off of it that means that if you
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want to make a new template with updated
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software and configurations you'll need
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to build everything from scratch on the
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other hand you can simply go with
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cloning the vm as it is the benefit with
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this is that you can make changes to
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your golden image dynamically applying
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needed updates and configurations as you
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see fit if you do this though you'll
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lose the useful ability to create a
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linked clone which means that each time
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you clone the machine it will be taking
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up as much disk space as the original vm
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usually my personal choice for
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production machines is to stick with
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leaving the virtual machine as a virtual
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machine and cloning it when i need to
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deploy a new instance every so often i
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power on the golden image and apply
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updates which makes deploying a new
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machine a little bit faster as i don't
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need to wait for more and more updates
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to apply the older the template gets i
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will however sometimes use a template if
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i need to spin up several test instances
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as they are much faster to create and to
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manage in the short term so let's go
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ahead and go into our server golden
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image open up the console quick side
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note if you're running a domain server
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you shouldn't join the golden image to
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the domain as i've experienced problems
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with this in the past so on this machine
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i've installed a couple of things and
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made sure that it's completely up to
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date with all the security patches i've
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also ensured that all the options and
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hardware settings are appropriately set
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in proxmox so now it's ready to be
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cloned regardless of what you have done
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to the machine i do recommend doing two
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things to your golden image specifically
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with windows the first is ensure that
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the qemu guest agent is already
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installed and second i like to create a
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batch file on the desktop that will make
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the post clone process a little simpler
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so here we have sysprep.bat if we edit
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we can see that it executes sysprep from
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the
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sysprep directory with the flags
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generalize oobe and reboot i'll be sure
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to post this in the description below
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all you'll do is open up an empty
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notepad file paste this into the notepad
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file and then save it as
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sysprep.bat on your desktop and it will
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be ready to run whenever you deploy a
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new image so the reason we run sysprep
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is that whenever you clone a windows
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machine it needs to have a new machine
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id assigned to it or there can be
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conflicts especially if you're running
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them together on a domain there are
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arguments regarding this topic on
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various forums and some people believe
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that this is an unnecessary step however
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my experience has proven otherwise so i
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always assist prep any new windows
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virtual machine
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another note here after you run sysprep
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it will delete the original windows
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profile and create a new one so it won't
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copy profile based configurations like
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folder views taskbar and start menu
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shortcuts or pretty much anything that
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stores configuration data in the local
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user's app data folder it should however
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still preserve installed programs
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drivers updates etc so now in proxmox go
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ahead and go to your node and find the
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golden image first we'll go over a basic
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clone so go ahead and right click select
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clone you'll enter a name vmid and a
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target storage this one is going to be
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our file server so i'll call it svr
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fs01 i'll leave the storage the same as
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the source vm and the vmid as 103. hit
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clone and this may take a little while
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you can monitor the progress by going to
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your tasks double clicking on it and
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watching the output
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so that took right around two minutes to
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copy once it says task okay the vm
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should be cloned and here we go now
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let's select the vm and hit start to
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start it and then we'll let it boot into
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windows
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now if this was a linux machine you
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could simply rename it and be done
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however in windows like i mentioned
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before we need to run sysprep so once
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you're booted in you'll run that batch
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file that we created earlier
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and then let it do its work this process
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usually takes a few minutes and then it
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will reboot so i'll get back after that
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is finished once the computer is
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finished rebooting you'll be brought to
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an initialization screen make sure that
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the appropriate options are set hit next
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click accept and then you'll need to set
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a password
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and hit finish
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so once the sys prep is complete your
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machine should be ready to go now let's
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take a look at templates since i do want
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to keep the original golden image vm
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i've made a clone of it for
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demonstration purposes and named it svr
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2019-template since we won't be allowed
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to make any more changes to the template
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once it's created we can actually go
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ahead and cis prep this machine before
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we convert it into a template this makes
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it so that when we clone it we don't
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need to run sysprep on the clone it'll
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already be initialized so before we run
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the sysprep batch file that we created
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earlier i'll make one adjustment to it
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so go ahead and right click and then hit
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edit and we want to change the reboot
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flag at the end
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to say shutdown
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go ahead and save it
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and then run and now we'll wait once
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again for the assist prep to complete
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except this time it won't automatically
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reboot after it's finished so now that
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the virtual machine has finished the
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sysprep and it is shut down we can right
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click on the vm and then select convert
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to template hit yes and then allow that
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to finish now when you make a clone of
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this template it'll automatically assign
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the machine a new machine id without the
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added step of running sysprep which is a
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bit of a time saver as well so now let's
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go ahead and make a clone of the
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template if you right click on it you'll
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see that the only option available is to
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make a clone so click that we'll give it
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a name for now i'll just call it test
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server
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leave the vmid as 106 and for this we'll
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leave it as a linked clone go ahead and
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clone it
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and unlike a standard clone it should
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create instantly so just like before the
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machine will reboot a couple of times
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and then you'll get the same post
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sysprep initialization screen
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and there we go your linked clone is up
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and running now i won't go over cloning
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or creating templates for containers as
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the process is nearly identical to
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virtual machines that being said i
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believe that is all for now as always
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thanks for watching let me know in the
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comments if you run into any issues or
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if you have any questions and i'll see
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you in the next video
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[Music]
