Clone a VM without VMware vcenter

Steps for cloning VM using SSH:

• SSH to the ESXi host
• Identify the path of the source (say, /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/SourceVM/where sourceVM is the name of the source VM)
• Create a new folder in the desired datastore

 mkdir /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/DesintationVM 

where DestinationVM is the name of the new VM

• Clone the sourceVM vmdk to the newly created folder DestinationVM

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/SourceVM/sourceVM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/DesintationVM/DesintationVM.vmdk

• Once cloning is completed, proceed with the creation of the new VM using vSphere client
• In the option where you need to provision the harddisk for the new VM, choose 'Use an existing virtual disk'
• Browse and point the newly cloned vmdk file