Cloning VM's based on volume in ESXi

[RTmxa]

Hi Folks,

Here is what I am trying to do.

I have a Win 2003 Server with some SW installed. Its about 10GB right now. The final VM on the customer site needs to be 200GB.

I need to

- Compress the VM to get it on a DVD

- At the time of installation take the VM and expand the disk to 200GB from the command line (unsupported mode).

I tried this successfully using the vCenter Converter (using the Clone based on Volume feature where it lets me set the new size of the VM and shows me how much space has been used in C drive).

I cant find anything on how to do this in unsupported mode however.

Thanks in advance.

[DSTAVERT]

You can use vmkfstools http://pubs.vmware.com/vi35/server_config/sc_appb.21.1.html

[RTmxa]

I did try using vmkfstools but the extend (-X) option only expands the VMDK in Windows at least. The OS does not detect the extension.

I was looking for which option allows me to replicate the expansion feature I described and VM cloning based on volume similar to vCenter Converter

[DSTAVERT]

You would need to do that within the OS. (diskpart or similar) The Converter expansion is only because converter does a file by file copy to a new disk. I would look at the ovftool. http://vmware.com/go/ovftool you can create a highly compressed copy of the disk. Start with a thin 200GB vmdk

Any reason you need to create such a large C drive?