I know how to clone a KVM VM. Once cloned I would like to reset cloned VM. How do I reset, unconfigure or customize a virtual machine so clones can be made? How can I reset a KVM clone virtual Machines with virt-sysprep command on a Linux server based hypervisor?

Introduction: You need to use the virt-sysprep command to reset a virtual machine. You can remove ssh-keys, hostname, network mac configuration, user accounts and more. You can enable or disable specific features. This page shows how to use the virt-clone and virt-sysprep commands together to clone a KVM VM on a Linux based server.

Syntax to reset a KVM clone virtual Machines with virt-sysprep command

The syntax is:
virt-sysprep -d kvmDomain virt-sysprep -d kvmDomainHere options

A list of sysprep operations to perform on a KVM VM to reset it

`abrt-data`	Remove the crash data generated by ABRT
`backup-files`	Remove editor backup files from the guest
`bash-history`	Remove the bash history in the guest
`blkid-tab`	Remove blkid tab in the guest
`ca-certificates`	Remove CA certificates in the guest
`crash-data`	Remove the crash data generated by kexec-tools
`cron-spool`	Remove user at-jobs and cron-jobs
`customize`	Customize the guest
`dhcp-client-state`	Remove DHCP client leases
`dhcp-server-state`	Remove DHCP server leases
`dovecot-data`	Remove Dovecot (mail server) data
`firewall-rules`	Remove the firewall rules
`flag-reconfiguration`	Flag the system for reconfiguration
`fs-uuids`	Change filesystem UUIDs
`kerberos-data`	Remove Kerberos data in the guest
`logfiles`	Remove many log files from the guest
`lvm-uuids`	Change LVM2 PV and VG UUIDs
`machine-id`	Remove the local machine ID
`mail-spool`	Remove email from the local mail spool directory
`net-hostname`	Remove HOSTNAME and DHCP_HOSTNAME in network interface configuration
`net-hwaddr`	Remove HWADDR (hard-coded MAC address) configuration
`pacct-log`	Remove the process accounting log files
`package-manager-cache`	Remove package manager cache
`pam-data`	Remove the PAM data in the guest
`passwd-backups`	Remove /etc/passwd- and similar backup files
`puppet-data-log`	Remove the data and log files of puppet
`rh-subscription-manager`	Remove the RH subscription manager files
`rhn-systemid`	Remove the RHN system ID
`rpm-db`	Remove host-specific RPM database files
`samba-db-log`	Remove the database and log files of Samba
`script`	Run arbitrary scripts against the guest
`smolt-uuid`	Remove the Smolt hardware UUID
`ssh-hostkeys`	Remove the SSH host keys in the guest
`ssh-userdir`	Remove “.ssh” directories in the guest
`sssd-db-log`	Remove the database and log files of sssd
`tmp-files`	Remove temporary files
`udev-persistent-net`	Remove udev persistent net rules
`user-account`	Remove the user accounts in the guest
`utmp`	Remove the utmp file
`yum-uuid`	Remove the yum UUID

You can choose which sysprep operations to perform. Give a comma-separated list of operations, for example:
virt-sysprep -d {vmDomainHere} --enable ssh-hostkeys,udev-persistent-net

Step 1. Clone your VM and spawn new instances in KVM

First use the virsh list command to get a list of all running VM domains/guest:
virsh list
Sample outputs:

 1 openbsd62 running 2 freebsd11-nixcraft running 3 fedora28-nixcraft running 4 rhel7 running 5 centos7-nixcraft running 6 sles12sp3 running 16 bionic running

First suspend the KVM, run:
virsh suspend bionic Domain bionic suspended
To clone vm named ‘bionic’ as testvm using the virt-clone command, run:
virt-clone --original bionic --name testvm --auto-clone

You may resume bionic VM, run:
virsh resume bionic Domain bionic resumed

Step 2. Use virt-sysprep command

Simply run as follows to reset everything:
virt-sysprep -d testvm

You can setup the hostname of the guest and force to keep the user account named vivek in the guest:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --hostname testvm --enable user-account --keep-user-accounts vivek
You can create a new Linux user account called tom and force password change on first login as follows:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --firstboot-command 'useradd -s /bin/bash -m -G sudo tom; chage -d 0 tom'
You can set root user account password too:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --root-password password:MySuperSecureRootPasswordHere
Or combine all of them:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --hostname testvm --keep-user-accounts vivek --root-password password:MySuperSecureRootPasswordHere

How to skip certain guest VM reset features

You can enable specific operations with --enable. For example, enable all options except resetting fs-uuids ( Change filesystem UUIDs), lvm-uuids ( Change LVM2 PV and VG UUIDs), and ssh-userdir ( Remove “.ssh” directories in the guest):

w=$(virt-sysprep --list-operations | egrep -v 'fs-uuids|lvm-uuids|ssh-userdir' | awk '{ printf "%s,", $1}' | sed 's/,$//')
echo "$w"

Now run it as follows:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --hostname testvm --keep-user-accounts vivek --enable $w
Another example:
virt-sysprep -d testvm --hostname testvm --keep-user-accounts vivek --enable $w --firstboot-command 'dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server'

Step 3. Start the VM

virsh start testvm Domain testvm started
Verify it with the following virsh command:
virsh list

Step 4. Login to the VM

Find/get the DHCP IP address of testvm using the following command along with the grep command:
virsh net-dhcp-leases default virsh net-dhcp-leases default | grep testvm virsh net-dhcp-leases default | grep testvm | awk '{ print $5}'
Sample outputs: