Clone/template VM to external storage(ex:pendrive/external HDD)

[tnhafiz]

Hi guys,

Need your help are suggestion. I have a cluster with 2 hosts. Inside those 2 hosts got some VMs. Later, both hosts will be under maintenance. Is there any way that I can export all the Vms to the external storage such as pendrive/external HDD?

[npadmani]

Do you do regular backups of those VMs?

VMs are stored in datastore, might be your VMFS or NFS datastore, there's a way to download those files directly from datastore. Or Export them out as OVF.

all you got to do is, shutdown VM, go to File Menu in vSphere Client, go to Export and export them one by one as OVF template.

Alternatively if you are using vSphere web client, then instructions can be found on following URL.

VMware vSphere 5.1- export VMs to OVF