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.
- 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.