How to create a Debian 13 virtual machine template

A virtual machine template is a preconfigured OS image that we use to quickly deploy new VMs, avoiding repetitions and errors. Here we’ll see how to create a Debian 13 master template ready for cloning. 1 Create and install the base VM Create a clean Debian 13 VM, apply all updates and add the common software you want on all clones (guest agent, utilities, etc.). Minimal example: # Create the base VM (adjust CPU, RAM, disk, ISO and network to your environment) virt-install \ --name debian13-base \ --memory 4096 \ --vcpus 2 \ --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/debian13-base.qcow2,size=20,format=qcow2 \ --cdrom /var/lib/libvirt/images/debian-13.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso \ --os-variant debian12 \ --network network=default,model=virtio \ --noautoconsole Once the VM is created, install all the components you want this template to have: users, packages, etc.