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theteamcaptain
Contributor
Contributor

Converting a .vmdk to .vmx + slow transfer rate

Hi,

I've been reading around the forums looking for an answer that fits, but I see a lot of responses asking people to run commands... I'm not sure where I'm supposed to run these commands so I will just ask here.

I am currently downloading a 100Gb .vmdk file from the HTTP service on my ESXi 4.1 server installation. I was able to navigate to the datastore and download it. I tried it via the vChere Client GUI however it was taking far too long to do this.

When I've completed the download, will I be able to point the Standalone Converter to the downloaded .vdk file and associated files for the VM and converter to a format compatible with VMware player? I only see an option to select a Source machine which resides on a server i.e. the network, and when I do this for a VM which is switched off, the transfer rate is exceptionally slow i.e. 200KBps. I have troubleshooted this problema s far as possible and cannot see a reason for it.

The download I have was running at 2.2MBps but has just jumped down to 90KBps - it's very odd how a simple download from ESXi server is so problematic and slow!

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

make sure you also download the vmx-file along with the vmdk

in most cases you can then just open the vmx-file in VMp-layer and it will run

if you run intro problems they can be fixed with small edits of the vmx-file - report back if you have problems

no need to use Converter unless you get paid per hour or want to kill some time


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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theteamcaptain
Contributor
Contributor

Hi There,

So just to clarify, if I make sure I have the .vmx and and the .vmdk in the same Directory, I can simply point VMPlayer at the .vmx and it will play?

I was under the impression a conversion of the VM was required...

The situation is that only a single user needs access to this VM for a short-term contract he has with my company, so if we can manage to get him to run the VM on his own laptop with VMPlayer, that will be sufficient.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

yes -  for that scenario you sure do not need converter

you may need to adjust the network settings to your needs - VMs that come from ESXi most of the times use NAT


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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theteamcaptain
Contributor
Contributor

Could you possibly advise what network settings needs to be changed and how to do it?

I was using the vSphere Client to administrate VMs on our ESXi server - how would I do it for the individual VM to make it functional in VM Player?

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

no need to think about that before the problem occurs - if you run into a problem you simply change the connection type to "bridged" or "NAT" with the vmplayer GUI


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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theteamcaptain
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much for your help. It is very much appreciated!

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theteamcaptain
Contributor
Contributor

I spoke too soon. After Downloading 100Gb worth of VM, the download crashed at 98-99% and the download manager I was using did not recover the download, so it failed and I have to start again!!

Why does VMware make the simplest tasks so difficult!?

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