When I copy a VM from the datastore to another backup media why does it change the blabla.vdmk to blabla-flat.vdmk ???
Are these the same and can I just rename the flat part out of it?
And it's really faster :
http://www.jume.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78
a vmdk is really just a pointer for lack of a better term. when you see the xxx.vmdk-flat, that is what holds the real data. When you copy off the vmdk, are you using the vmkfstools?
no just coppying the whole directory from the datastore to another drive on the network so that I can put it back and use it if one crashes.. I have plenty of disk storage so I figured I would back up whole vm this way.
vmkfstools copys the vmdk files as it should be copied...I have heard of issues before with copying these files off if you do not use vmkfstools. What I would do is use the "cloning" feature of vmkfstools.
vmkfstools -i /pathtosourcevmdk/vmdk.vmdk /pathtobackupdestinationvmdk/vmdk.vmdk
This method copies the vmdk's properly. If you had to restore, just create a new VM with existing vmdk's and point to these files.
Ok but then to save the file on a networked machine (Windows) you have to mount the place where you putting it. Samba doesn't run on esxi correct.. how do I mount the windows share in esxi when I am SSH into the esxi.
The vmkfstools worked fine to copy it to another data store.. Thanks
hmm...I wonder if you can use converter to copy it to a Windows share? I'm not really certain of this, but may be worth a try...
And it's really faster :
http://www.jume.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78