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ASIadmin
Contributor
Contributor

Has 4.1 changed vmkfstools -E ?

Hi,

Up until now, I've been able to move a VM across storage in a pinch via vmkfstools -E (--renamevirtualdisk).

Suddenly in ESXi 4.1.0 (260247), I can't seem to get the snapshot files moved along:

  1. vmkfstools -E ./t3-sql-1-000002.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/MarloweLocal/t3-sql-1/t3-sql-1-000002.vmdk

Failed to rename './t3-sql-1-000002.vmdk' : One of the parameters supplied is invalid (1)

If I move the parent disk, the parent moves fine. After that though, attempts to move the snapshot lead to this:

  1. vmkfstools -E t3-sql-1-000002.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/MarloweLocal/t3-sql-1/t3-sql-1-000002.vmdk

Failed to rename 't3-sql-1-000002.vmdk' : The parent of this virtual disk could not be opened (23)

It's as if the -E functionality has started acting like the -i (clone) functionality with respect to snapshots, which makes no sense.

What changed, and where do I go from here?

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2 Replies
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

What changed, and where do I go from here?

Command line and those commands are all but defunct. Plus those types of commands can be done in the gui of VI Client. If you want to move files, try veeam SCP 3.0

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

There have definitely been some changes to vmkfstools from 4.0 to 4.1, some subtle and others not very well documented. I'm not aware of the -E flag changing, perhaps they changed in allowing you to rename snapshot VMDKs.

For some other changes with vmkfstools, I wrote an article about it - http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/07/vsphere-41-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.html

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