CLONING LIVE VIRTUAL MACHINES

A system and method are disclosed for cloning a live virtual machine (i.e., a virtual machine that is running). In accordance with one example, a computer system prepares an area of a storage device for a clone of a live virtual machine, and a transaction is then executed that comprises: creating the clone of the live virtual machine based on a live snapshot of the live virtual machine, copying the clone to the area of the storage device, and mirroring a change to a virtual disk of the live virtual machine that occurs after the live snapshot is created, wherein the mirroring is via one or more write operations to the virtual disk and to a replica of the virtual disk associated with the clone.