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herevirtually
Contributor
Contributor

Best way to back up a vmdk that's being re-sized

Hi,

I need to re-size a vmdk that's being used as a win server 2k3 boot disk. Procedure to re-size it seems to be pretty widely available so that's fine but I obviously still wish to back it up in advance. What's the quickest / easiest way of doing this (while still being reliable Smiley Happy )? Would a simple snapshot do-it?

Thanks,

herevirtually.

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a2alpha
Expert
Expert

A snapshot isn't a backup, all it is doing is making the original .vmdk read only and creates a delta file of all new changes.

I would recommend either cloning it (ideally whilst it is powered off for consistancy) or using the trial version of Vizioncore vRanger or the free Veeam FastSCP.

Hope this helps.

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kooltechies
Expert
Expert

You can either copy the entire VM folder or you can convert that in OVF format with vApp feature in vSphere.

Thanks,

Samir

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

do not snaphsot the guest before increasing the disk, you will run into some serious issues.

As you said the procedure is pretty straight forward. Using ExtPart will allow you to do it live as well.

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