Converting VM's to File

[dspent]

I got a request from my development team today... They want to have 8 development servers (current VM's on ESX 3.0x) converted to files which they can burn to DVD. They then want to delete those VM's as they will be using them elsewhere.

I've never done that before, so what would be the best (and fastest) way to do that?

[theanykey · Accepted solution]

For best practice (this is perferrably the best option of many) ...

install converter 3.0.2u1 directly inside the running VM using the local administrator and convert to a windows NTFS share (mapped drive).

the source will be "physical machine, this local machine"

the destination will be "standalone virtual machine for (workstation v5 / server 1.x)"

opt to not install tools and to not customize the machine

opt to use pre-allocated disks and 2gb chunks

Your result should be multiple 2gb files for each VM. You can then fit as many as possible onto a DVD burn.

When you wish to restore, copy the files back into a temporary folder (windows NTFS)

Install converter on that machine and choose to convert "standalone virtual machine" directly to the IP of your ESX host/datastore

Again, opt to not install tools and to not customize the machine

Afterwards, power on the VM and manually upgrade the tools

[Chris_Howard]

VMware converter will do the trick.

Just choose VMware standalone virtual machines as the destination, and Workstation 6 as the Type, along with the location, and use the "split disk into 2GB files" option.

At the other end, you just need to do the above in reverse - i.e. to an ESX host (I presume).

Personally, I would not remove the VMs from your source host(s), until you know they are working and testing in their new home.

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[theanykey]

I am not a big fan of using "workstation v6" when you plan on bring that image back to ESX. While it has been proven to work for the most part, the virtual hardware in workstation v6+ is somewhat newer then what is allowable in ESX 3.0.x and for this reason I feel it is a better practice to align the virtual hardware (compare workstation v5 to ESX 3.0.x). Thoughts?

[Chris_Howard]

That's a fair point....

[theanykey]

I should also mention that you will less issues arise if you ever revert to using ESX command "vmkfstools" to import a workstation VM if its built for v5. http://kb.vmware.com/kb/900