In a perfect world, I would like to clone my production accouting VM so that we can test an upgrade that just came out. I would like to clone the Windows 2008 R2 server with a different name. This server is running SQL Server 2008 R2 also and has our accounting databases running on it.
I was thinking about cloning the server with a different name and then using my backup software to restore the databases so as to give me point in time transactions.
Not sure if this is the best way to do this. I might be better off creating a new server, installing SQL and restoring the databases to that newly created instance.
This is temporary so that I can test the upgrade and validate the data. Once satisfied, we will upgrade the production VM.
This is all running on Vsphere version 5.
Can someone guide me through this?
Much appreciated!