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Pakosys
Contributor
Contributor

Copy a VM to an external hard drive

Good night community

I need to copy a virtual machine from my esxi to a hard drive and pass it to another esxi that is somewhere else, do you know how I can do this ???

Thank you!!!!!

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Alex_Romeo
Leadership
Leadership

Hi,

Export it in OVA or OVF format

https://masteringvmware.com/how-to-export-vm-as-a-ovf-or-ova/

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ARomeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/
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Alex_Romeo
Leadership
Leadership

another solution is to type:

https://<ip_your_Esxi>; - or <FQDN>\folder

access the Datastore -> VM folder, and click on the individual files to allow the download:

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In these images my VM is turned on, you have to do it by turning off your virtual machine.

ARomeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/
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berndweyand
Expert
Expert

another way is to enable ssh on host and copy via WinSCP. VM needs to be powered down

but the only supported way is to export as OVA/OVF. Unmount any ISO if connected, otherwise you will not be able to import the OVA

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

And that the VM does NOT have snapshots first right?


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Pakosys
Contributor
Contributor

Virtual machine has scheduled snapshot

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Why?


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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