VMware Cloud Community
pearlyshells
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-02-2009 01:25 PM

New VM

have someone who sent me all the files that comprise a VM (vmdk, vmx, et al). He would like me to recreate the VM on one of my hosts using VirtualCenter so that the VM will be available to him when he arrives in town.

Just want to confirm that what I need to do. I believe I could copy the files to a folder inside my /vmfs/volumes folder on the SAN then just recreate the VM. Is that the best way? Or, is there a better way?

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4 Replies
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-02-2009 01:28 PM

you could import directly into the datastore, by "browse datastore" and upload. Then when complete just right click on the .vmx and "add to inventory"

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pearlyshells
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-02-2009 03:59 PM

Thanks Troy,

I got the VM into the inventory and it exists in VC. However, I have discovered that the VM will not power up. I got a message indicating the Virtual Disks had a "backing type" that is not supported. The disks are of a vmdk format so I'm confused. Do you know what this means?

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java_cat33
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎06-02-2009 05:23 PM

Similar issue here - might need to use vConverter if the version of the vm hardware is not supported.....

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/206582

Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal
‎06-02-2009 05:51 PM

....as mentioned, depending on where these files came from if the import did not work, you may have better luck getting them added successfully into inventory by using VMware Converter. You may be able to do it against your registered object and doing a V2V while the VM is in a powered off state.