Creating a test clone

You can test migrated VMs before putting them in production by using test clones. Test clones leave the on-premises VM running and move an identical clone from a snapshot of the VM to Google Cloud.

Test clones have a few limitations:

  • The test clone VM is created in write-isolation storage mode, so changes in the cloud are not persisted on-premises.
  • Each VM can have a maximum of one test clone at a time.

Prerequisites

You must have a Cloud Extension set up to create test clones.

Test clones can be created in two ways:

  • By creating a new job in the Waves UI in the Velostrata Manager
  • By using vCenter

Creating a test clone from the Waves UI

To create a test clone using the Waves UI, you need to create a migration wave with a valid runbook. A runbook is a list of VMs you want to migrate.

First, follow these steps to create a runbook.

Next, you'll need to start a job from the Velostrata Runbook Automation page:

  1. Select your Wave.
  2. Click Action > New Job.
  3. Select Test Clone
  4. Click Start.

More information on this process is describe on the Create a job page.

Creating a test clone from vCenter

  1. Open the vSphere web client and select the desired virtual machine.
  2. Right-click on the VM and select Velostrata Operations > Test Clone.
  3. Select the Cloud Extension from the drop-down menu.
  4. On the Migrate for Compute Engine Cloud Extension screen, name the test clone VM if desired, and click Next. The Cloud Instance screen appears.
  5. On this screen, rightsizing recommendations are presented.

    Once you have decided which instance to use, select it from the Instance Type dropdown.

    Cloud Instance screen, showing available instance sizes and recommendations

  6. Click Next. The Networking screen appears.

  7. Select the desired Subnet from the drop-down menu.

  8. Enter the required Network Tags in a comma-separated list. Network tags are used to assign instances to certain firewall rules and network routes. For example, if several VM instances are serving a website, tag those instances and then use that tag to apply a firewall rule that allows HTTP access.

  9. Select the Instance Service Account (optional) from the drop-down menu.

  10. Choose a dynamic or static IP address from the Configure Private IP drop-down list:

    • Select Auto to assign an available address on the subnet automatically, or
    • Select Static to input a reserved static IP address. To create one, see Compute Engine's guide to Reserving a Static Internal IP Address.
  11. From the Edge Node drop-down list, select the primary node from your Cloud Extension to handle the migration .

  12. Choose whether you would like to give this test clone an External IP. If yes, you can use an ephemeral IP address or enter the external IP address created on the Google Cloud console.

  13. Click Next. The Summary screen appears.

  14. Review the summary and then click Finish.

What's next?