A clone is a full copy of a managed application. Unlike LiveClones, clones cannot be refreshed and they don't permit prep-mounting. A clone consumes as much storage as the original application data. This is different from a mount operation which uses a virtual copy that does not require additional storage.
Use the clone function to create an independent copy of a dataset. The most common uses are the following:
- Application development and testing
- Data audit for compliance
- Data warehousing
- E-discovery
- User acceptance testing
A clone of a VMware VM backup creates an entirely new VMware VM that has no dependency on the backup/recovery appliance. It is very similar to a restore operation in that it needs to copy all the data before the VM is available. See Clone an image of a VMware VM.
A clone of a Microsoft SQL server database creates an entirely new database that has no dependency on the backup/recovery appliance. It is very similar to a restore operation in that it needs to copy all the data before the database is available. See Clone Microsoft SQL Server Databases.