---
layout: page
page_title: "Clone a VM"
subcategory: Guides
description: |-
    This guide explains how to create a VM template and clone it to a new VM.
---

# Clone a VM

## Create a VM template

VM templates in Proxmox provide an efficient way to create multiple identical VMs. Templates act as a base image that can be cloned to create new VMs, ensuring consistency and reducing the time needed to provision new instances. When a VM is created as a template, it is read-only and cannot be started, but can be cloned multiple times to create new VMs.

You can create a template with Terraform by setting the `template` attribute to `true` when creating the VM resource:

{{ codefile "terraform" "examples/guides/clone-vm/template.tf" }}

Once you have a template, you can clone it to create new VMs. The cloned VMs will inherit all configuration from the template but can be customized further as needed.

{{ codefile "terraform" "examples/guides/clone-vm/clone.tf" }}

Full example is available in the [examples/guides/clone-vm](https://github.com/bpg/terraform-provider-proxmox/tree/main/examples/guides/clone-vm) directory.