A vSphere administrator needs to create an exact replica of a virtual machine as a safeguard prior to changing the virtual machine configuration. Which vSphere feature accomplishes this requirement?

vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) provides continuous availability by creating a live shadow instance of a VM, not a point-in-time replica for configuration changes.

vSphere vMotion is used to migrate a running virtual machine from one host to another without downtime; it does not create a copy.

Cloning creates an identical, independent copy of a virtual machine at a specific point in time, including its virtual disks and configuration. This standalone replica can then be used as a backup or for testing without affecting the original VM.

Snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine at a specific point in time but are not independent replicas and are not recommended for long-term backups or creating standalone copies for testing.