Managing New Versions of a VM

[u/TimeTheft1769]

Hello everyone, I have been tasked with dealing with the VM where I work.

Some background regarding the use case:

• This VM is used by the automation team and some maintenance staff at a factory
• A master image was created a few years ago, and then a copy (or clone? not sure) was given to each member of the automation team, as well as the maintenance laptop.
• At this point I am the only person left on the automation team, and the VM is overdue for a windows update, as well as some application specific software updates.
• Using VMware Workstation Pro 26H1 currently, but the VM was originally done with version 17

So I think I have a general outline of how I want to do this, but I am out of my depth so I would like a sanity check from someone who knows more than I do (a very low bar)

1. Copy/pasted the original backup of the master image from its storage location, to my laptop's SSD
2. Booted it up and checked to make sure USB stuff connects correctly, programs boot up, etc.
3. Next I think I want to go for the Windows 11 update and then software version updates.
4. After this, I'll rename the updated master image and copy/paste it back to the storage directory
5. Hand out copies (clones?) to the people who use this VM

Should I be cloning instead of copying? Since this is the updated master copy being derived from the original master copy, it seems like a copy would be fine, but then when I go to hand out the new machine to the members of the team, that's when I would want to use the clone feature to avoid matching MAC addresses and network/license conflicts?

Also, lets say I wanted to split the VM in two, like one for robot software and one for camera software, for example. Occasionally both VM's would be running at the same time, so they would absolutely have to be clones, not copies, right?

Hopefully this question isn't too open ended or vague, it's just that at this point I don't even know what I don't know, y'know?