Overview
When it comes to cloning instances we could do it using the old fashion way or, from Utah onwards, we can use the "Clone Admin Console", which groups everything we need to care about in a single place. Given the new console helps us have everything close together not to forget about any detail, this new way is much more interesting to explore. If you don't know anything about it yet, this blog article will help you.
The plugin is called "sn_instance_clone" and it is free.
Dashboard
Once installed we will have a new application menu and a module underneath as shown below.
This module will take us to the Dashboard, where we can request a clone or see the Configurations and Definitions atop.
Requesting a clone
If we click on "Request clone" we will be able to select the source and target instances, the clone profile, the "Clone Scheduled Start Time", the "Email upon completion" to notify the individuals who need to be aware, and also the "Lock settings at time of clone request", where we can ensure that if we change the settings from that request onwards, the request will still use the settings specified when the clone was requested.
Also, all "Exclusions", "Preservers" and "Cleanup Scripts" can be accessed from the links under "Definition", plus a series of optional settings. Here's what you will find under the "General" tab. The "Amount of data copied from the Task table" has two options: "Full" or "Last 90 days". We can also define a Clone Frequency, which can be "None", "Weekly", "Bi-weekly" or "Monthly". Finally, we can find a "Apply On-demand Backup" option that if enabled will force a backup before the clone.
Under "Exclusions we can find the following options enabled by default. They are quite self-explanatory however:
To finalise, the "Preservers" tab will show the options below. The classic "Preserve theme" option and the "No. of days of In-progress Global Update Sets to be preserved" option which has two options: "Last 90 days" or "--None--"
With this, we would be ready to request the clone with the options selected.
Configurations
Additionally, the dashboard contains two more tabs "Configurations" and "Definitions". The "Configurations" tab has an "Overview" section that has links to the "Clone Instances" and "Clone Profiles" sections on the left hand side menu.
No matter if we click on "View all" or we click on the menu options, we will be accessing the same elements. "Clone instances" contains all instances that can be used to clone, either target or source ones.
Then "Clone profiles" contains all the previously saved "Clone profiles" we can use during a clone:
Definitions
Finally, the last tab is "Definitions", which contains "Exclusions", "Preservers" and "Cleanup scripts" all in one place.
As it can be seen, the "Clone Admin Console" is a powerful tool that groups all clone settings in one single place. Although it is not required to clone instances it can help configure clones with little knowledge, given every option is well explained.
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