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1 "helpful" answer available (6 pts)
1 2 Previous Next 18 Replies Last post: Dec 5, 2007 9:33 AM by wila   Go to original post
Click to view wila's profile Virtuoso 3,266 posts since
Jun 27, 2006
Eeks, i'm being quoted for a technique i do not recommend... please use vmkfstools to export the files first and then use cp/scp/ftp whatever to move the exported files of the vmfs system.
Alternatively if your ESX host has enough non VMFS space, you can use vmkfstools to export directly to the non VMFS filesystem. This last thing is what i normally do myself.
Click to view troberts's profile Enthusiast 62 posts since
Nov 3, 2004
Please understand that using cp/ftp/scp to move a vmdk from a vmfs to a non-vmfs filesystem will corrupt vmdk files on a vmfs2 filesystem.
Click to view wila's profile Virtuoso 3,266 posts since
Jun 27, 2006
Hi frani,

No worries, i'm very vocal most of the times (maybe a bit too vocal) so will complain if i disagree. :D

As for your question, as you see from the answers this is one of the areas in which complete and clear documentation is missing. My reply, especially the details, is mostly repeating the quotes of another Vmware TSE (wish i remembered who that was) who tried to explain it before.
Even the answer from troberts with the KB article is (was?) incomplete on some details, like that it is a problem on vmfs2, but not so when using vmfs3. (or click on the related article where it is discussed that the linux ext2 filesystem cannot hold more as 2GB sized files? In reality it 2-64 TB)
Hopefully that documentation gets a little edit now to bring it closer to today and not stating facts from years ago.
So thank YOU for asking.

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