VMKFSTOOLS on linux machine

[ALJones2]

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone knows how i can get vmkfstools to work on a linux machine, i dont care what version of linux. I just dont want to be using esxi in order to minimise the amount of machines used. I am hoping to only use 1 machine

[scott28tt]

@ALJones2 

What are you trying to do with vmkfstools?

This may help: https://code.vmware.com/web/tool/6.7u2/esxcli

[continuum]

You need vmkfstools for:
1. format an existing unformatted partition with VMFS 5
2. format an existing unformatted partition with VMFS 6
3. expand existing VMFS-partitions
4. create ESXi-compatible new vmdks on VMFS 5 and VMFS 6
5. convert ESXi-compatible vmdks to different  ESXi-compatible vmdks when the target vmdk is stored on VMFS 5 or 6
6. maintenance of ESXi-compatible vmdks when they are stored on VMFS 5 or 6 (reclaim unused space functions , pinch zeroes ...)
7. consolidate Snapshot-chains when they are stored on VMFS 5
8. consolidate Snapshot-chains when they are stored on VMFS 6
9. expand or truncate existing vmdks when they are stored on VMFS 5 or 6

For most of those functions you need trustworthy VMFS read and write support.
At the moment trustworthy VMFS read and write support is impossible from a standalone Linux-system.

If you are only interested in NFS related functions you can use dd for the creation of ESXi-compatible vmdks.

>> I am hoping to only use 1 machine
For what ? - when ever any VMFS-write operation is desired you need a working ESXi host.
I understand your request - I wish I had a binary for vmkfstools running on Linux too - but as long as we have no trustworthy VMFS-read/write functionality for Linux there is not one real-life use-case other than recovery and forensics.

In daily vsphere admin work you either you either use sshfs or ssh to connect to a working ESXi.

Ulli