Creating a VMware template for use with ESXi

pinkydapimp

So i know that ESXi/vSphere doesnt have the cloning feature. So what i plan on doing is creating a template VM then just copying the vdk to create new VMs. A few questions.

1. Is it necessary to sysprep prior to shutting down this template VM? Wont copying change the important stuff?
   
2. When creating a new VM, do i create it, but prior to booting do the copy and replace the vdk that was created?
   
3. Any benefit as to whether i thin or thick provision when doing this?
   
4. If i join the template VM to a domain prior to saving will it keep that setting?

Thanks.

sratakhin

1. I always do Sysprep before cloning. It's not a must, but Microsoft says so. Also, you don't want to have two identical machines on your network anyway, even if it's temporary.
2. You right-click the template (in vCenter) and choose "Deploy a VM from this template". Something along the lines.
3. Depends. Thick provisioned VMs are useful for applications that do a lot of I/O, like Exchange and SQL server. For others, thin is fine.
4. If you do Sysprep, the VM will join a workgroup.