problems "cloning" a Drupal site

Had a site that I wanted to have 3 iterations of -- to use as multiple sandboxes --

I had them in subdomains -- and copied the database -- but the copied sites didn't look like the original --

I could not find any reason for the discrepancy and in truth I don't even now know what was causing the problem -- but I did find a way to get the three sites back into step...

Found a solution to my problems --

I logged in as admin to the Drupal sites --

then I ran

update.php -- nothing was shown to have updated --

after update I ran

cron.php

and voila

or is it eureka??

either way -- the sites look like they should ---

why -- I don't know ---

so there it is --- now -- when I compare the 3 sites --- varying in name something like the sites below --

ALL IS WELL

http://rslts.example.com

http://rslts3.example.com

http://rslts152.example.com