RDM to VMDK conversion

[VPXA]

Hi All,

Please provide your suggestions on converting RDM's to _vmdk Physical disk Mode.
Need to convert the disk from Physical to Virtual later to migrate the RDM's to VDMK's.

is there any simpliest path other then above steps.

[plamen_d]

Hello,

Try P2V conversion (i.e. powered on source VM). This is volume based, though, not disk based (Converter sees the volume as it is seen by the GOS). Not sure whether this is simple enough, but that's what Converter can do.

HTH,

Plamen

[Soha_Fouad]

Hi,

You can convert RDM to vmdk by doing storage vmotion

VM with Physical (Pass-Thru) RDMs (Powered Off – Cold Migration):

On a migrate, if I chose to change the format (via the advanced view), the pRDM is converted to a VMDK on the destination VMFS datastore.

If I chose not to do any conversion, only the pRDM mapping file is moved from the source VMFS datastore to the destination VMFS datastore – the data stays on the original LUN

As per the below Blog :

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/migrating-rdms-and-a-question-for-rdm-users.html

For the conversion of the selected disk(s) to take place, the Storage vMotion or migration must involve moving the disk(s) to a different datastore.
                   Steps

1.  Select the VM in the inventory and select Storage only option 
2. change the storage,  select per disk migration option, under the disk format change the format 
3. click on finish 

Notes:

• Virtual machine disks must be in persistent mode or be raw device mappings (RDMs). For virtual compatibility mode RDMs, you can migrate the mapping file or convert to thick-provisioned or thin-provisioned disks during migration as long as the destination is not an NFS datastore.

As per the below KB:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1026829

Hope this helps.

Best Regards

Soha Fouad