The invention relates to the technical field of
cloud computing, in particular to a
virtual cluster expanding method based on
cloning. The method includes the steps that firstly, all physical machines share one
network sharing catalog, and when clusters are established, original
virtual machine mirror image files are copied to the sharing catalog; then, external snapshot files are established for the original
virtual machine mirror image files and stored in local catalogs of the physical machines, and virtual machines are established in an external snapshot mode; when the scale of the virtual clusters needs to be expanded, the local catalogs, selected to be established, of the physical machines are searched for the external snapshot files, if the external snapshot files exist, local
cloning is conducted, and if no external snapshot files exist,
cloning is conducted from the long distance to the local; finally, a front-end
server writes the IP addresses of the newly-established virtual machines into a cluster
list, and
cluster expansion is finished. The virtual clusters are expanded based on the cloning technology for external snapshots, and a
cluster expansion scheme which is quick, universal and high in flexibility is provided; the method can be used for expanding the virtual clusters.