Cloning an existing Install for upgrade testing

With the new 8.0 and 7.12 releases, I am looking to clone my existing VM to create a testing environment where we can evaluate the new builds with our customizations. I am concerned that after I clone everything and start it back up, workflows and scheduled tasks will essentially duplicate causing some confusion with our employees and customers. My thought was to disable any workflows directly in SQL, and disable any cron for the time being before enabling the networking with the new IP.

Is there anything else that may cause me some issues? just want to be sure before I fire it up.

What you can do is to clone your VM and disable the network on it. Then proceed to disable your workflows locally (then re-enable the network). Or you can just test the upgrades when your VM is disconnected…