Copying out VMDK to external HDD

[elvinpng1627]

I am using ESXI 5 and require to copy out the vmdk to move it to another remote site to boot up.

However, our leased line is only 4mbps and we do not own a license for vmotion. Even if we use vMotion, the transfer will take ages too.

I have tried using the Download option but this option is network and it simply takes 20000mins to download a 170gb vmdk.

Please advise me what other methods are there..

Any ways to copy out the vmdk in the datastore to a local external hdd??

Help!

[Omega201110141]

Hi!

I would suggest using VMware Converter it's free and should do the job

[ScreamingSilenc]

If you have physical access to the ESXi server you can connect external HDD to it and copy the vmdk

Check this link how to access USB on ESXi

[continuum]

Can you attach a USB-disk to a Linux VM that runs on ESXi ?
If you have no Linux-VM you can use any Linux-LiveCD.

When the USB-disk is connected to that Linux use sshfs in readonly mode and connect to the ESXi.

mkdir /esxi
sshfs root@esxihost:/ /esxi
cd /esxi/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vm/
dd if=vm-flat.vmdk of=20M | bzip2 -9f >/mnt/usb-disk/vm-flat.vmdk.bz2

When that is finished power off the Linux VM and send the USB-disk to the second ESXi.
Connect to the 2.ESXi via sshfs in write-mode and extract the bz2 archive to its new path.

This still uses network but that should be no problem as the traffic is inside the ESXi host only.

I use this approach quite often when I extract data from VMFS-volumes during a Recovery for example.

Converter would also work but it is less reliable and would hit the network harder.

[cykVM]

If you have physical access to the ESXi server you can connect external HDD to it and copy the vmdk

Check this link how to access USB on ESXi

But this only supports FAT16 formatted USB storage devices and would be pretty useless for copying the 170GB vmdk.

[continuum]

Not absolutely useless - a stubborn user could split the 170Gb into 2GB pieces with dd commands ...

[cykVM]

... after splitting the 200GB disk into 90 FAT16 parttions and thereafter waiting the above mentioned 20000 mins? :smileylaugh:

[continuum]

Being stubborn may not be enough - getting paid per hours may be also required

[ScreamingSilenc]

Why don't you format your disk to ext3 and copy the vmdk.

One more useful link