# Using Ansible on cloned VMs?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-ansible-on-cloned-vms/33316>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [July 3, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-ansible-on-cloned-vms/33316 "2020-07-03T10:26:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Victor\_Hooi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/71e660/32.png) [@Victor\_Hooi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Victor_Hooi)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-ansible-on-cloned-vms/33316/1 "2020-07-03T10:26:10Z")

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We have a small VM cluster we use for testing (Proxmox, with KVM VMs).

We’ve created a library of KVM templates, that users can clone to new VMs.

Each clone has a unique MAC address, and SMBIOS ID, but is otherwise identical.

My question is - is there any way of using Ansible to manage the machines, without needing to manually setup Ansible on each one?

For example - can we install Ansible in the base image, and somehow have it identify itself based on MAC/SMBIOS, and check-in to the central server that way?

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**Author:** ![Antony\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Antony\_Stone](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Antony_Stone)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 11:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-ansible-on-cloned-vms/33316/2 "2020-07-03T11:06:46Z")

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You seem to be thinking of Puppet - that has a client on the target machine  
which pulls its config from the master.

Ansible is a push mechanism where the Ansible server connects out to the  
target machines and configures them.

So, yes, what you want to do is certainly achievable - the machine running  
Ansible just needs to know about the VMs you want to manage.

Antony.