Clone VM without changing the UUID?

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promxmox_user021

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Jun 8, 2026
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Hi folks,
when cloning a VM (linked or full clone), proxmox sets a new UUID. It seems that this was not always done like this, because it causes problems in my infrastructure since some time that have not been there some years ago.

I understand that not changing the UUID can cause issues in some use cases and that changing the UUID feels more "natural" more like "other bare metal system" and that probably for this reason it was chosen that way. However again, this way causes issues as well, specially licensing issues.

It would be great, if there was an per-machine option "keep UUID for clones".
Another good option would be to have a setting "change/keep/ask" for the cloning process.
But both options are not available, are there?

Let me explain my use case:
I have a software that works with sensitive data in a VM. Such sensitive, that I want to eliminate any risk that its data is leaked to the internet.
For this reason I have two instances A and B of this VM.
A is connected to the internet to allow updates, but it never sees the "production data"
B is a clone of A which does the actual processing and is never connected to the internet.

From time to time I destroy B and create a new clone of A to effectively update VM B.
 
Alternatively, you could restore a (already existing) backup of the VM. That would be identical to the original.
The restore function does have a "make unique" option. Maybe you can request a feature like "don't make unique" for cloning at https://bugzilla.proxmox.com (if there is no related request already).
 
Hi @promxmox_user021 , welcome to the forum.

I understand that you would prefer to have a built-in checkmark to address your needs. However, you have a very specific use-case, and I believe you can already address it with post-clone processing. The PVE CLI (qm) allows you to set both vmgenid and smbios UUID.

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
@bkgeek17: You are right, I can manually change the UUID with each and every update. If I would consider this to be a very specific problem only for me, I would not talk about it here.
I think many users do not expect that licenses break when a vm is cloned.

@leesteken thanks for pointing me to bugzilla, I will open a ticket there during the next days.
 
promxmox_user021 said:
You are right, I can manually change the UUID with each and every update. If I would consider this to be a very specific problem only for me, I would not talk about it here.
Click to expand...
You are welcome to file a feature request to overload GUI/CLI with this particular functionality. Given that you have options to achieve your goal already - be realistic about the priority of this request.

promxmox_user021 said:
I think many users do not expect that licenses break when a vm is cloned.
Click to expand...
The license providers may disagree with you. You would need to consult your contract, of course.

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
I would expect to violate the license agreement (especially when it locks to a specific system) when I clone a VM and have two systems with the same license. But that depends of course on the license agreement and is independent of the used technology. ;)
 
leesteken said:
I would expect to violate the license agreement (especially when it locks to a specific system) when I clone a VM and have two systems with the same license. But that depends of course on the license agreement and is independent of the used technology. ;)
Click to expand...
I do not use the software on 2 VMs with a 1-system-license. Please read my description again, if that is what you understood.
 
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