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yesint
Contributor
Contributor

How to access host filesystem?

Dear All,

I'm complete novice in vmware, so my question is probably quite stupid.

How can I access the host filesystem from the guest OS (I have Win2003 guest in Linux host)? I understand that I have to tell windows to use some shared network folder somehow, but I have no idea what exactly should I do.

Could somebody point me to some step-by-step instructions because I understand almost nothing in networking.

Thanks!

Semen

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6 Replies
VirtualNoitall
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hello,

It sounds like you are using a hosted product and not Vmware VI?

You can install samba on your linux server and create a share you can then access via your guest just like you would in a non-virtual world. You coudl also run an scp gui on your windows guest and use ssh to move files between it and your host. You have a couple of options but it is not really different then what you have available in the physical/non-VMware world.

Hope that helps!

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esiebert7625
Immortal
Immortal

You can't do this directly from the VM to the host, the host is isolated from the VM and the VM cannot see outside it's virtual disk on the host it's on. To see the host file system you would have have to use the network like you would do on physical servers. So with Linux you can map a drive with Samba. Below are the steps I documented for doing this on ESX (Redhat) to map to Windows. You can ignore the ESX firewall steps.

fyi..if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons...thanks

How do I create a ISO mount point that points to a Windows Server for storing ISO files for my VM’s? – You can create a mount point inside /vmimages so your VM’s can access ISO files when needed. You could just create a directory on your VMFS volume and copy them there but this takes valuable disk space away from the ESX server. You can also use this technique to create other mount points on the ESX server if you need to copy files from a Windows server to or from it for patches and other things.

• First you will have to open the firewall port in ESX by typing in the service console “esxcfg-firewall -e smbClient”. This opens outbound TCP ports 137 – 139 and 445.

• Next make sure the Local Security Policy on the Windows Server you are going to map to has the following settings under Security options. If you do not do this you may get a “Stale NFS Handle” or “Permission denied” error when trying to mount.

o Microsoft network client - digitally sign communications (always) – DISABLED

o Microsoft network client - digitally sign communications (if server agrees) – DISABLED

o Microsoft network server - digitally sign communications (always) – DISABLED

o Microsoft network server - digitally sign communications (if server agrees) – DISABLED

• Next type “cd /vmimages” and then “mkdir ISO”

• Next type “mount -t smbfs -o username= 0 0”

o Edit /etc/rc.local using Nano or Vi

o Add the following line to the bottom of the file “mount –a”

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jgswinkels
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello Semen,

Please quote which Host OS you are using so we can help you.

cheers,

Jan

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yesint
Contributor
Contributor

I'm using Fedora Core 6 as a host and Windows 2003 serevr as a guest.

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VirtualNoitall
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hello,

Here is a link I found by doing a quick google on file sharing and FC 6: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Fedora_fc5#How_to_install_Samba_Server_for_files.2Ffolders_sharing_servi...

If this doesn't get you 100% of the way simply google: Fedora Core create samba share

Once the share is setup simply connect to the share(s) as you normally would from you windows guest. This should be the identical process as it would be in the physical world if you have done it there before.

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

I'm using Fedora Core 6 as a host and Windows 2003 serevr as a guest.

Yes, but what VMware product? So we can move this thread to the appropriate forum.

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