Hello everybody,

as a regular reader of this group I  found a lot of interesting issues and
hints in this forum, which significantly improved my experience with Virtual
Server. However, I could not find an answer to an issue I have every now and
then:

From time to time I copy virtual machine (VM) and run the copy on the same
physical VS host as the original VM.

I shut down the original VM, copy it to a different path, rename vmx and vhd
files and adapt the path to the renamed VHD entry in the copied vmx-file.

Afterwards I could add the copied VM through the VS Administration website
without errors. Trying to avoid an IP address conflict with the original VM,
I configured the NIC of the copied VM into a different virtual network,
unconnected to any physical NIC of the host.

However, when starting up the copied VM, it "forgot" that I had placed it
into a different network, and used the same network than the original VM was
in, resulting in an IP address conflict with the running original VM.

It's not a big issue, since I could change the virtual network connection
again once the copied VM was running. But I assume that I did not follow a
"best practice" to copy a VM and run the copy on the same physical host.

Does anyone know how to copy a virtual machine and making persistant changes
_before_ booting up the copy? Any hints appreciated.

Cheers,

tobias