17.13. Duplicating an existing guest and its configuration file

This section outlines copying an existing configuration file to create a new guest. There are key parameters in your guest's configuration file you must be aware of, and modify, to successfully duplicate a guest.

name

The name of your guest as it is known to the hypervisor and displayed in the management utilities. This entry should be unique on your system.

uuid

A unique handle for the guest, a new UUID can be regenerated using the uuidgen command. A sample UUID output:

$ uuidgen 
a984a14f-4191-4d14-868e-329906b211e5

vif

The MAC address must define a unique MAC address for each guest. This is automatically done if the standard tools are used. If you are copying a guest configuration from an existing guest you can use the script Section 17.8, “Generating a new unique MAC address”.
If you are moving or duplicating an existing guest configuration file to a new host you have to make sure you adjust the xenbr entry to correspond with your local networking configuration (you can obtain the bridge information using the command brctl show command).
Device entries, make sure you adjust the entries in the disk= section to point to the correct guest image.

Now, adjust the system configuration settings on your guest:

/etc/sysconfig/network

Modify the HOSTNAME entry to the guest's new hostname.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Modify the HWADDR address to the output from ifconfig eth0
Modify the IPADDR entry if a static IP address is used.