I just documented this procedure also that I mentioned above...
Method 3 Use FastSCP and vmkfstools to copy the disk to ESX and convert it to VMFS3 format
If your Server VM uses IDE disks you will have to convert them to SCSI disks prior to using this method since ESX does not support IDE hard drives. To convert your disks to IDE follow the steps in this VMware knowledge base article:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1881 Once you complete the conversion to SCSI you can proceed with the below steps.
Download FastSCP (
http://www.veeam.com/veeam_fast_scp.asp) and install on the VMware Server, FastSCP requires the dot net framework 2.0 so download and install this first if you do not have it (
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en ), alternately you can use WinSCP (
http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) which is a bit slower then FastSCP
Once FastSCP is installed run it, click Add Server enter your ESX server name/IP, the default port of 22, username and password and click Finish
Connect to your ESX server, browse to your /vmfs/volumes/<volume name> and select New Folder and call it temp or whatever you want
Shutdown the VM from Server that you will be copying the vmdk file from
Using Windows Explorer, browse to your vmdk files and select both the descriptor vmdk file (small file) and the data vmdk file (-flat large file)
Paste these into your temp directory on the ESX server and the transfer will begin
Once the transfer completes login to your ESX service console and change to your temp directory, ie. cd /vmfs/volumes/<volume name>/temp
To import the file to VMFS3 format type vmkfstools i <source file name> <destination file name> the file name is the name of the small descriptor vmdk file, ie. vmkfstools i Win2003vm1.vmdk Win2003vm1-new.vmdk. This create a new copy of your source vmdk file in VMFS3 format, it will automatically create both the descriptor and the data vmdk files
Create a new VM on your ESX server, select Custom and then select the VMs configuration. When you get to Select a Disk choose Use an Existing Disk and browse to you destination file name you selected above.
Power on your new VM and you should be all set, you can delete your original source file from the temp directory
Optionally you can move your vmdk files from the temp directory to the VMs directory that it created.
o Shutdown your VM.
o Login to the Service Console
o Change to your VMs directory, ie. cd /vmfs/volumes/<volume name>/myVM1
o Copy file from the temp directory to the VMs directory using vmkfstools, ie. vmkfstools i /vmfs/volumes/<volume name>/temp/Win2003vm1-new.vmdk myVM1.vmdk This will make a copy of your vmdk file in your VMs directory, you can also change the destination file name to match your VMs name.
o In the VI Client, edit your VMs settings, remove the current hard disk (dont delete it yet) and add new new hard disk, select Use an Existing Disk and browse to the new vmdk file in your VMs directory.
o Power on the VM and if it boots OK you can delete the original virtual disk, you can use FastSCP for this or right-click on your Datastore in the VI Client and select Browse your Datastore with the VI Client to delete the two original virtual disk files
