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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
manpage, user manual, usage: VBoxManage clonemedium
-->
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Copyright (C) 2006-2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
This file is part of VirtualBox base platform packages, as
available from https://www.virtualbox.org.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
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-->
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
<!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
%all.entities;
]>
<refentry id="vboxmanage-clonemedium" lang="en">
<refentryinfo>
<pubdate>$Date: 2023-01-17 15:15:46 +0100 (Tue, 17 Jan 2023) $</pubdate>
<title>VBoxManage clonemedium</title>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>VBoxManage-clonemedium</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>VBoxManage-clonemedium</refname>
<refpurpose>create a clone of a medium</refpurpose>
<refclass>&product-name;</refclass>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-clonemedium">
<!-- The 'id' is mandatory and must start with 'synopsis-'. -->
<command>VBoxManage clonemedium</command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>source-medium</replaceable></arg>
</group>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>target-medium</replaceable></arg>
</group>
<group>
<arg choice="plain">disk</arg>
<arg choice="plain">dvd</arg>
<arg choice="plain">floppy</arg>
</group>
<arg>--existing</arg>
<arg>--format=<group choice="plain">
<arg choice="plain">VDI</arg>
<arg choice="plain">VMDK</arg>
<arg choice="plain">VHD</arg>
<arg choice="plain">RAW</arg>
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>other</replaceable></arg>
</group></arg>
<arg>--variant=Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX</arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>
The <command>VBoxManage clonemedium</command> command enables you
to clone an existing medium (virtual disk, DVD, or floppy), which
is typically an image file. Only the Universally Unique Identifier
(UUID) differs between the original image and the cloned image.
</para>
<para>
You can use the Virtual Media Manager to transfer the cloned image
to another host system or reimport it into &product-name;. See
<xref linkend="virtual-media-manager" /> and <xref linkend="cloningvdis" />.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>uuid</replaceable> | <replaceable>source-medium</replaceable></term>
<listitem><para>
Specifies the UUID or the absolute or relative file name of
the source medium to clone. You can specify the UUID of the
medium only if it is registered. Use the <command>VBoxManage
list hdds</command> command to list registered images.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>uuid</replaceable> | <replaceable>target-medium</replaceable></term>
<listitem><para>
Specifies the UUID or the absolute or relative file name of
the target (clone) medium. You can specify the UUID of the
target medium only if it is registered. Use the
<command>VBoxManage list hdds</command> command to list
registered images.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>disk</literal> | <literal>dvd</literal> | <literal>floppy</literal></term>
<listitem><para>
Specifies the type of the medium to clone. Valid values are
<literal>disk</literal>, <literal>dvd</literal>, and
<literal>floppy</literal>. The default value is
<literal>disk</literal>.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--existing</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Performs the clone operation by overwriting an existing
target medium. The result is that only the portion of the
source medium that fits into the existing target medium is
copied.
</para><para>
If the target medium is smaller than the source, only the
portion of the source medium up to the size of the target
medium is copied.
</para><para>
If the target medium is larger than the source, the
remaining part of the target medium is unchanged.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--format</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Specifies the file format of the target medium if it differs
from the format of the source medium. Valid values are
<literal>VDI</literal>, <literal>VMDK</literal>,
<literal>VHD</literal>, <literal>RAW</literal>, and
<replaceable>other</replaceable>.
</para><remark>
What file formats can <replaceable>other</replaceable> be?
</remark></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--variant=Standard,Fixed,Split2G,Stream,ESX</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Specifies the file format variant for the target medium,
which is a comma-separated list of variants. Following are
the valid values:
</para><itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
<literal>Standard</literal> is the default disk image
type, which has a dynamically allocated file size.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<literal>Fixed</literal> uses a disk image that has a
fixed file size.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<literal>Split2G</literal> indicates that the disk image
is split into 2GB segments. This value is for VMDK only.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<literal>Stream</literal> optimizes the disk image for
downloading. This value is for VMDK only.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<literal>ESX</literal> is used for some VMWare products.
This value is for VMDK only.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist><para>
Note that not all variant combinations are valid. Specifying
incompatible variant values in the list will produce an
error message.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<note>
<para>
For compatibility with earlier versions of &product-name;, you
can use the <command>clonevdi</command> and
<command>clonehd</command> commands instead of the
<command>clonemedium</command> command.
</para>
</note>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Examples</title>
<remark role="help-scope" condition="GLOBAL" />
<para>
The following command creates a clone of the
<filename>disk01.vdi</filename> disk image file. The clone is
called <filename>disk02.vdi</filename>.
</para>
<screen>$ VBoxManage clonemedium disk01.vdi disk02.vdi</screen>
<para>
The following command creates a clone of the
<filename>disk01.vdi</filename> disk image file. The clone is in
VMDK format and is called <filename>disk02.vmdk</filename>.
</para>
<screen>$ VBoxManage clonemedium disk01.vdi disk02.vmdk --format VMDK</screen>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>
|
