Clone or ?

[Dennis100]

I'm setting up some Win 11 VMs that will be used for system admin on our LAN.   I was wondering what would be the best method to do the following (or something similar that meets the same goal):

I create a base VM that has the OS + apps I need. 

I then sysprep this for my master "base version.

Once the syspreped VM is created I then create my production VMs from the syspreped master.

Once those are created and the OS is registered  I then take a "picture" of each.

On a regular basis I take the "picture", power it up, update all the apps, and save it. 

Once I've saved it I delete the current active VM and restore the saved "picture" as a active VM.

This is in a AD domain, MAK licensing, and vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus.  The current plan is only 2 admin VMs and possibly 2 user VMs.   Ideas?

[Douglas Bowen]

By taking a picture I assume you mean snapshot? The base VM once syspreped I would convert to template. From this template you would deploy the production machines. When you need to update the apps etc.. you would shut the machine down, take a snapshot, power on then update all apps etc. If all works as expected I would recommend deleting the snapshot after a couple of days, as leaving snapshots is not a good idea, they tend to grow. For longer term backup of the original machine state, I would clone the machine whilst they are powered off, to give you a machine you can restore to if all goes south. Hope this answers your question.

[Dennist777]

Thanks.  The plan is to only update the VM "pictures" and roll those out to replace the current working version.  This way any day to day junk is overwritten and in case of a intrusion I can bring these systems back to a know good/secure state quickly.  I only use the term "picture" as I don't know what method is best.  I guess just doing a backup and restoring from that would do it but am wondering if there is a better way.

[Douglas Bowen]

The above answer I gave is the designed method for achieving what you want to do

[IT_Architect]

- Snapshots are designed to preserve a point in time.  If you want to reset the computer to before you did an update today, or you want to reset the computer every day, then snapshots can work for that.  They are not designed to be held open for a long time because anything new will be written to the snapshot and it will get grow to nearly the same size as the primary virtual hard drive thereby taking up twice the space and take a long time to commit.

- For a master that you distribute, you would use snapshots during the upgrade process and when happy, then delete the snapshots, which merges everything new in the snapshot to the primary virtual hard drive.  You now have a new master.  To distribute that master virtual machine to different locations varies on what licenses you have.  If just the free license, you can use ssh with vmkfstools.  Else it can be a lot easier by duplicating it elsewhere.  When you start it up, it will ask if you copied it or moved it.  Copied means it is a new instance and triggers changing things that make it unique and along with it require adequate licensing.  Moving it doesn't change anything other than paths inside files.  Lying can cause data corruption and licensing lockups on some software.

I'm guessing this is what you are after and should get you started down the right learning path.