How to clone a virtual machine in VMware Fusion for Mac Personal Edition.

As I already mentioned in a previous post, after upgrading to macOS Big Sur I decided to give VMware Fusion a chance.

There were two main reasons:

• VMware Fusion supports macOS Big Sur while Oracle VirtualBox still has some issues
• VMware Fusion is now free for personal use.

Free version of VMware fusion does not have a Clone button. However, you can still clone virtual machines.

Cloning a virtual machine in VMware Fusion

1. Go to File New as you would do to create a new virtual machine
2. Installation method: Select “create a custom virtual machine”
3. Select the operating system (same as the original)
4. Choose firmware: same as original
5. Choose a Virtual Disk: select “Use an existing virtual disk”
6. Select the vmdk file from the original vm
7. Customize Settings: optionally select the name of the new vm

There may some post-cloning tasks like:

• Reconfiguring the virtual machine. Depending on the configiration of the original vm, the new one may require some tuning (IP/MAC addresses, hostname, etc.)
• Disable Side Channel Mitigations. It affects performance and, depending on your threat model, you may not need them.

You can watch a video of the whole process: