topic Re: update VMware server one images to use in ESXI server in VMware User Group (VMUG) Discussions

update VMware server one images to use in ESXI server

oxment — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:47:22 GMT

Hello,

I just have a lot of virtual machines that has been configured and used by vmware server 1. Now, I am going to use ESXI server, when I uploaded the images to the esxi server and tried to run them I got an error in VMDK. Is it possible for me to change VMDK and use those old images or I need to rebuild all images from scracth. also, is it any tool availbale for updating my old images to use ESXI ?

Thank You

Re: update VMware server one images to use in ESXI server

weinstein5 — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 01:43:38 GMT

You should be able to use VMware Standalone Converter to convert the VMs to run on ESXi

Re: update VMware server one images to use in ESXI server

a_p_ — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:42:26 GMT

ESXi does not support the sparse disk format, used by VMware Server by default. What you may to do is either follow weinstein5's recommendation and use VMware Converter or convert the .vmdk files to a supported format (zeroedthick, eagerzeroedthick or thin) using the vmkfstools command line tool in ESXi.

Assuming the virtual disk has no snapshots, you could follow these steps to maintain the virtual disk file name.

create a sub-directory "old" in the VM's folder on the ESXi host and move the .vmdk files to this folder
from the VM's base folder run e.g. vmksftools -i old/<vmname>.vmdk -d thin vmname.vmdk
if the VM powers up without issues you may delete the "old" sub-directory

André