moving a vm between filesystems (vmfs - ext3 - vmfs)

[infinitiguy]

Here's the situation. I have two sets of ESX servers, in different cities. I need to get one VM from one cluster, to the 2nd cluster. My thought was move the vm from vmfs, to ext3(/vmimages) then ftp it over to a ext3 partition on the other esx server, then use vmkfstools -i to import it back in..

Now I thought I had used this process before in the past, and I do this type of thing very rarely, so I can't remember exactly what I did to get it to work, but when I just tried

# vmkfstools -i license3.vmdk /vmimages/machines/license3test.vmdk

Destination disk format: VMFS thick

Cloning disk 'license3.vmdk'...

Failed to clone disk : File system isn't VMFS (35).

Which I guess makes sense. What needs to change? Or is this not the proper way to do it and should I be doing something different?

Running vc2.5 and esx 3.5U1 (u2 i think in the other location..)

[infinitiguy]

I think I found my answer.. can anyone confirm?

#1 vmkfstools -i diskonvmfs.vmdk -d 2gbsparse /vmimages/diskonext3

#2 ftp new ext3 disks across

#3 vmkfstools -i diskonext3.vmdk /vmfs/production/newvmfsdisk.vmdk

does that sound right?

[khughes · Accepted solution]

Along the lines you are going on, you could also use a program like winSCP or fastSCP and just shut down the machine, download it to your pc, connect to the esx server you want it to go and upload it and then add to inventory there.

• Kyle

[infinitiguy]

I guess that was also one of my other questions. I use Veeam FastSCP and I didn't know if that would take care of the proper conversions between filesystems or not. i.e. download via scp to ntfs, and then from ntfs copy straight back to vmfs without any need for vmkfstools.

[nabsltd]

The VMDK file is completely portable if you move it around the network using binary transfers. It doesn't matter what file system it ends up on (within reason...I've had them on NTFS, FAT32, vmfs, ext3, ISO9660, UDF and probably a few more).

Also, you don't need to copy from the vmfs to an ext3 filesystem first. Just shut down the VM and you can copy straight from /vmfs/volumes/VolumeName/ using whatever tool you are most comfortable with.

But, if you are using shared storage, use VCB to copy the VM straight from the FC or iSCSI SAN to minimize the load on your ESX server.

[khughes]

I guess that was also one of my other questions. I use Veeam FastSCP and I didn't know if that would take care of the proper conversions between filesystems or not. i.e. download via scp to ntfs, and then from ntfs copy straight back to vmfs without any need for vmkfstools.

Like the last person said, the files are just files, and you can move them around however you want. I just moved a VM from a R/D box to a different R/D box with winSCP. Totally fine and safe. Good luck on your transfers.

• Kyle

[infinitiguy]

scp was really the key here. I forgot about it. All i knew is I couldnt use a unix command like cp to copy it off somewhere else, and that I could corrupt the disk so I was just being extra obsessive careful

Cheers to all that responded

[nabsltd]

As long as the VM is not running, "cp" works just fine.

The only restriction is that "cp" requires the source and destination to both be mounted filesystems. So, you could use "cp" to copy the VMDK from VMFS to a Windows share by mounting it (mount -t smbfs).

I also open up plain old FTP between ESX hosts, and let trusted workstations FTP into the ESX hosts. I do this because the overhead for the encryption on sftp or scp is quite a bit, so FTP transfers are much faster.