Techniques are described herein for cloning a database. According to some embodiments, a database server receives a request to clone a source database. In response to receiving the request, the database server retrieves a set of one or more storage credentials for a set of one or more respective storage systems on which a set of files of the source database are stored. The set of storage credentials grant permission to the database server to create snapshot copies on the set of storage systems. The database server generates, for a target database using the set of storage credentials, a snapshot copy of each respective file in the set of files of the source database. The snapshot copy of the respective file points to the same set of one or more data blocks as the respective file until at least one of the data blocks is modified.