In the previous post, we laid the ground work for creating our test environment. Now that the groundwork has been completed, we will clone the server. Although this process will be for cloning my template to create a server that will become a domain controller, that is irrelevant here. The process is the same for any server.
To clone the image, in VirtualBox, right-click on the server template you have created, and select “Clone” from the context menu. Give the machine an appropriate name (in this case DC1) and select the option to reinitialize the MAC address. If you do not do this you will have MAC address conflicts when you run multiple cloned images.
After clicking ‘Next’, you are asked whether you want a Full Clone or a Linked Clone. I want my servers to be completely independent, so I chose Full Clone.
After clicking Clone, there is a cute homage to Dolly the Sheep, and the cloning process starts. This does take a while. Just as when I created the template, the whole 25 GB needs to be allocated and formatted.
Once the cloning process finishes, I can start up the server, and then I am ready to use it. After the server starts for the first time, I am presented with the “Out of Box Experience”.
Click ‘Next’, accept the license agreement on the next page, click ‘Next’ to that, and then name your server.
Click ‘Start’, and after a few moments, you have a brand spanking new server to use.
