Create linked clones in VMware vSphere with PowerCLI

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Recently at a customer I needed to automatically create linked clones in VMware vSphere. For this I wrote a quick PowerShell (PowerCLI) function. With this function you can create multiple linked clones from one base VM in a resource pool or on a ESXi host. The script will also check if there isn’t already a snapshot present for the linked clones and gives you the ability to delete that snapshot.

By using linked clones you don’t copy all the storage of the base VM. You only save the delta’s in the target datastore location. This can be really handy for big VM’s like FileServer. But keep in mind that the base VM will have an active snapshot and this can diminish performance.

To use the function you must have PowerCLI installed.

I hope this was informative. For questions or comments you can always give a reaction in the comment section or contact me: