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Use VMware Studio which is free to roll your own Linux Appliances ready to Import from OVA or OVF otherwise Clonevis best option.
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Use VMware Studio which is free to roll your own Linux Appliances ready to Import from OVA or OVF otherwise Clonevis best option.

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Thanks for your help dipopo! Your solution is for a Windows install, rather than Ubuntu, but it pointed me in the right direction.
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Thanks for your help dipopo! Your solution is for a Windows install, rather than Ubuntu, but it pointed me in the right direction.

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I have a live Ubuntu server that I want to create a UAT virtual machine instance of on VMWare Fusion. What is the best way to create an exact replica of the Ubuntu install on a VM?<br />
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Is there an application that will create an ISO from the live server that I can use to create a VM instance? Preferably, I want the ISO to only be as big as the used amount of HD space. <br />
<br />
I have made a bunch of changes and package additions for security and general use, so it would be a tough sell to recreate the thing by hand. Any other suggestions if cloning isn't the best option?
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I have a live Ubuntu server that I want to create a UAT virtual machine instance of on VMWare Fusion. What is the best way to create an exact replica of the Ubuntu install on a VM?

Is there an application that will create an ISO from the live server that I can use to create a VM instance? Preferably, I want the ISO to only be as big as the used amount of HD space. 

I have made a bunch of changes and package additions for security and general use, so it would be a tough sell to recreate the thing by hand. Any other suggestions if cloning isn't the best option?

Clone Ubuntu Server to Virtual Machine

Linux is a UNIX-like open source operating system with hundreds of distinct distributions, including: Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, CentOS, and Arch Linux. Linux is generally associated with web and database servers, but has become popular in many niche industries and applications.

Linux

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Servers are computing devices that are similar to desktop computers in that they have the same basic components, but are significantly different in size, configuration and purpose. Servers are usually accessed over a network, and many run unattended, without a computer monitor, input device, audio hardware or USB interfaces. Many servers do not have a graphical user interface (GUI), and are configured and managed remotely. Servers typically include hardware redundancy such as dual power supplies, RAID disk systems, and ECC memory, along with extensive pre-boot memory testing and verification. Critical components might be hot swappable, and to guard against overheating, servers might have more powerful fans or use water cooling.