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TheVMinator
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P to V conversion creates multiple .vmdk files

When running a p to v conversion, what is it that would cause multiple .vmdk files to be created (>30 of them) from a single physical hard drive less than 250GB?  Is there a setting that controls this? Thanks

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a_p_
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Assuming you are on Windows and have a split virtual disk like this:

30.03.2011  22:59           393.216 mydisk-s001.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s002.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s003.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s004.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s005.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s006.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s007.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s008.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s009.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s010.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59            65.536 mydisk-s011.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59               882 mydisk.vmdk

then you can run e.g.

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r mydisk.vmdk -t 0 onedisk.vmdk

which will result in a single vmdk for this vdisk

30.03.2011  23:02         2.752.512 onedisk.vmdk

The original vmdk's remain untouched. This means you need additional disk space to run this command.

André

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weinstein5
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Were there multiple partitions on the hard drive? - vmdks might have been created for each partition

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a_p_
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What's the source and what's the target ? Especially, what is the target file system and target virtualization product you selected?

André

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TheVMinator
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Unfortunately someone else did the p2v so I can't say what options they chose and no way to find out. Only stuck with a pile of .vmdk's I'm now trying to deploy

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a_p_
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I assume the conversion target was e.g. an external (or internal) disk with a FAT/FAT32 file system which is not capable to hold large files and therefore the converter created 2 GB disks. If you deploy the VM to a desktop product (Workstation, Player, ...) on an NTFS file system, you may use vmware-vdiskmanager to convert the disk back to a single vmdk.

André

TheVMinator
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Thanks - I'm looking but not seeing vmware-vdiskmanager advertised to allow you to do this specific task of converting multiple vmdk's into one

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a_p_
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Assuming you are on Windows and have a split virtual disk like this:

30.03.2011  22:59           393.216 mydisk-s001.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s002.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s003.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s004.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s005.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s006.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s007.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s008.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s009.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59           327.680 mydisk-s010.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59            65.536 mydisk-s011.vmdk
30.03.2011  22:59               882 mydisk.vmdk

then you can run e.g.

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r mydisk.vmdk -t 0 onedisk.vmdk

which will result in a single vmdk for this vdisk

30.03.2011  23:02         2.752.512 onedisk.vmdk

The original vmdk's remain untouched. This means you need additional disk space to run this command.

André

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continuum
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there is no good reason to convert to a single file - the split format is more stable then the one-piece growing format and it is easier to backup it via network.

Only reason that makes sense to convert it - you plan to use many snapshots on this VM

Keep in mind if you use FAT32 filesystem to store your vmdk you MUST use the split format


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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

TheVMinator
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OK thanks for the input

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