vmkfstools formating

[SENNAF1]

I need to clone a guest and don't have access to vCenter.  I am going to use vmkfstools to do this and read KB: 1028042.  This VM has a snapshot and the article says to grab the most current snapshot delta to get the most resent version of the guest.  How do I know what file it is?  I checked the vmx and found this scsi0:0.fileName = "CUC PUB 8.6-000001.vmdk" is this the file?  I have these in the datastore.

/vmfs/volumes/53040877-a821ab54-2d1a-001018cfccf2/CUC PUB 8.6 # ls -lah
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         1.9k May 15 11:40 .
drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root         1.4k Feb 22 18:22 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root         6.3M May 15 11:40 CUC PUB 8.6-000001-ctk.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root        15.8G May 16 11:11 CUC PUB 8.6-000001-delta.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root          396 Feb 24 16:27 CUC PUB 8.6-000001.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root         6.0G Feb 21 01:06 CUC PUB 8.6-6cd4d1b0.vswp
-rw-------    1 root     root         6.0G Feb 24 16:37 CUC PUB 8.6-Snapshot1.vmsn
-rw-------    1 root     root       200.0G Feb 24 16:27 CUC PUB 8.6-flat.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root         8.5k May 16 11:01 CUC PUB 8.6.nvram
-rw-------    1 root     root          500 Feb 21 00:57 CUC PUB 8.6.vmdk
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          409 May 15 11:40 CUC PUB 8.6.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         2.8k May 15 11:41 CUC PUB 8.6.vmx
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          266 May 15 08:59 CUC PUB 8.6.vmxf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       510.7k May 15 11:42 vmware.log

Thanks for any help

[DanielOprea · Accepted solution]

Yes, this disk is the snapshot: 396 Feb 24 16:27 CUC PUB 8.6-000001.vmdk

For more information please, look to this book:

https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/vmdk_50_technote.pdf?src=vmdk

[SENNAF1]

Thank You,  Just to clarify the file I noted from the .vnx  would be the file I want to copy for the current state of the vm?  Would like to know for future tasks.

[Borja_Mari]

Hello,

and the changes since the snapshot was taken are in this file:

-rw-------    1 root     root        15.8G May 16 11:11 CUC PUB 8.6-000001-delta.vmdk

Best regards,

Pablo

[Borja_Mari]

Hello,

if you have ssh access to the esxi host, i would recommend you to commit the snapshot:

VMware KB: Committing snapshots on ESXi host from command line

Then copy the virtual machine's vdisk:

-rw-------    1 root     root       200.0G Feb 24 16:27 CUC PUB 8.6-flat.vmdk

Best regards,

Pablo