Accessing VMs From Dualboot Computer with Workstation Pro

[SamFan]

Hello,

I have a question that probably has a simple solution, but it has eluded me, as I am just learning about virtualization.

I have a dual boot computer that has ESXI and Windows installed on it. I used Altaro Backup to restore 2 VMS onto the ESXI. Now I need to network them in a sandbox. I was planning on using Workstation Pro for this.

I am trying to open the ESXI VMs in Workstation Pro in the windows install (of course). I can see the drives but no VMs, I'm sure I am missing something simple... I would rather not export and import them as they are already on that computer!

Any help would be appreciated. Please let me know if I missed any information or am unclear.

Thank you,

Sam

[tracywang]

Thanks for using Workstation. In that case, you can open the VM directly if you have the disk read & write privilege.

[SamFan]

Thank you for your reply.

I not able to grant these permissions as the drive is only available through Windows Disk Management. It was formatted and delegated as an ESXI datastore... Maybe I am missing something?

So far I have managed to export and restore one of the VMs and was about to start on the larger of the two, so this I can complete what I need to, but it is going to take way longer than I had anticipated.

It would literally save me days of exporting and converting if I was able to access the Datastore in Windows.

Cheers,
Sam

[continuum · Accepted solution]

> I have a dual boot computer that has ESXI and Windows installed on it.

I assume you have
1 disk partitioned by ESXi and

1 disk partitioned by Windows.
There is no tool available that enables your Windows host to read and write VMFS as it would be necessary to work with Workstation VMs.
So your only option that comes to my mind is to do this:
when booted into ESXi:
create a Windows VM and store it as usual in the VMFS-partition.
That new Windows VM then must run a NFS-service.
This NFS-service can use a third NTFS-disk to store ESXi - VMs.
So you would need a host with 3 separate harddisks.

By the way - I had the same idea years ago and thought that such a setup would help learning ESXi handling faster.
Nowadays I no longer see any advantage of the constellation:
duakboot-setup with ESXi and Windows
compared with a
regular Windows setup
with just ESXi-systems inside Workstation VMs.
You can do the same on both setups - but the Windows-host / ESXi-as-a-VM setup makes so many problems simply disappear that the performance gain of the native ESXi option can in no way compensate for the convenience of the ESXi-as-a-VM approach.
For the record: due to my work (ESXi-recovery) I exchange vmdks and VMs across platforms almost daily .... that would be a pain if I only had ESXi after a reboot of the working host.

[SamFan]

Thank you so much for your response.

This makes sense, it would explain why I can not seem to get this working or even find any documentation about this scenario.

While I could go through your procedure, I think I will continue to export, convert and move the machines to the Windows hard drive (btw; yes you are correct that ESXI and Windows are on 2 separate HDs, also the DataStore which contains the VMs is on a 3rd HD).

You are also correct that it's a pain to have to constantly reboot in order to switch back and forth between ESXI and Windows, I am learning and have learnt that what seemed like a great idea at first is not the most functional solution.Oh well, gotta start somewhere!

Once I get the sandbox configured the machine will almost always be running Windows, I just need to be able to load SQL backups in a sandbox very rarely.

Thanks again for your response.

Sam