Access ESX local storage from the outside world

[twahl]

Maybe a dumb question but...Is it possible go gain access to the local storage of an ESX box from the outside world? I would like to gain access from a Windows system.

Thanks,

TW

[vmroyale]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Maybe a dumb question but...Is it possible go gain access to the local storage of an ESX box from the outside world? I would like to gain access from a Windows system.

You could use the vSphere client's datastore browser or something like winscp.

Good Luck!

[AntonVZhbankov]

Use Veeam FastSCP

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MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[Sreejesh_D]

this article should help you.

http://vmetc.com/2008/06/04/use-the-vi-client-datastore-browser-to-upload-files-to-esx-hosts/

VCP3, VCP4, RHCE, EMCPA

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[RParker]

.Is it possible go gain access to the local storage of an ESX box from the outside world?

Yes. If you use NFS as your datastore, then yes. If it's VMFS, it's not possible. I assume you want to use it like a fileshare?

[twahl]

Thanks for the replies. Veeam FastSCP seems to be the most promising for what I am hoping to achieve. I would like to create a scheduled task in which Veeam would copy a VM from an ESX machine to local storage on a Windows 2008 Server. The problem that I am having is that it looks like the VM has to be powered off in order to copy all the VM files. I am using the free version of Veeam Backup and FastSCP. Are there any work acounds on this? Schedule the vm to power down? Purchase some software from Veeam?

Thanks,

Terry

[AntonVZhbankov · Accepted solution]

>Are there any work acounds on this? Schedule the vm to power down? Purchase some software from Veeam?

Yes. Upgrade to full Veeam Backup, but do not forget that ESXi should be any license level except Free. In case of ESX I suppose you already have some commercial license, so only Veeam purchase is needed.

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MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[taylorb]

Create a scheduled task to clone the VM to the desired datastore and don't check the box to power on after completion. Then you just copy the powered off clone to your win2008 box Thin provisioning for the clone will save disk space

[twahl]

Interesting. I came across documentation for using .Net to hook into VmWare. So you are thinking that I could use .Net for the scheduled task. Does the .Net hooks into VmWare allow me to copy the cloned VM from the ESX box to a local drive on a Windows OS?

Thanks for the reply,

Terry

[taylorb]

I don't know, I am not a programmer. But creating a clone lets you leave your VM powered on and then you can copy the VM any way you would like.