Quick ESXi VMWare 5.0 Question - I converted a physical machine in to a vmdk file today, how to impo

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

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I need to go to a client site in a few days to do a p2v image.

I'm going to be using VMware Sphere converter standalone and an external USB hard drive.

I have gone used one of my machines at work as a test, a little shuttle running Windows Server 2003, I have gone through the process of converting which I am happy with and I have a vmdk file of 65gb.

If I want to attach this to my Virtual host at home, I am assuming I plug the drive in to the host machine, and somehow do this through either VSphere or use the converter standalone to convert back?

I have tried doing it but I am not seeing the USB drive appear as a new volume or datastore on my virtual host through vsphere.

Just need to know how to create the virtual machine now from this vmdk file, slowly trawling through google but nothing is looking positive yet.

Any help appreciated :)
 
I did this last weekend. Use Converter to P2V the system to a VM compatible with VMWare Workstation to get your vmdk(s) and settings files. Then you can use the Converter again to select your newly converted/created VM and connect directly to ESX and import it. Worked a treat for me although beware that Converter 5.0 doesn't work work ESX 5.1.
 
Shad said:
I did this last weekend. Use Converter to P2V the system to a VM compatible with VMWare Workstation to get your vmdk(s) and settings files. Then you can use the Converter again to select your newly converted/created VM and connect directly to ESX and import it. Worked a treat for me although beware that Converter 5.0 doesn't work work ESX 5.1.
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How did you get the USB drive to appear through ESX? I am not seeing it, I have tried scanning for new disks or volumes, or do you mean plug it in to another workstation on the network with converter installed, then point it to the ESXi server and import that way?

Thanks for the reply :)

EDIT: Ignore I think I was using the wrong menu, I was using configure machine instead of convert machine
 
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DJMK4 said:
<snip> or do you mean plug it in to another workstation on the network with converter installed, then point it to the ESXi server and import that way?

Thanks for the reply :)
Click to expand...

Yes, you can convert straight "into" an ESXi server, just provide it's IP / username / password.

You could copy the VM to the datastore via the vSphere Client and then create a new VM, pointing it to the VMDK you uploaded (simple walkthrough here)
 
You need to upload the file using something like veam, or even just vclient software. Once it's in the DS create the virtual machine hardware and add a harddisk select using existing vmdk.

Transfer speeds will be slow, veam (fastscp) is a good option for this.
 
Started it, I only have 83gb free space on my data store at the moment as all I have installed is 1 x 250GB drive, the others I have took out whilst I am "testing" my host, as I have important data on other drives.

This VDMK file is 65gb, but its throwing up an error saying it cant import not enough space on datastore1 (83gb free), I know its going to be risky doing it. But I just wanted to test more than anything, I would remove it straight after, does ESXi reserve space for something that I am not aware of stopping me from doing this?
 
Ah, just found out why, when converting, it takes in the "total capacity" of the drive, not just the data you are using.

so I need 149gb free as that's the capacity of the drive on my physical box. just deleted my ubuntu server VM and the free space has not changed even after a refresh, wtf :p might need more space
 
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The reason I did P2V to a Workstation compatible VM was for transportation (I actually installed ESXi on the server that was running the physical server previously, if you follow). As a n00b it gave me the friendliest/safest way of converting the server. I figured that would also suit your scenario here if you need to transport a VM to/from a client site?

Chri5, can confirm it still doesn't work with 5.1! It will crash as soon as you try to connect to ESX to import the VM. I had to install ESXi 5.0, import the VM and then upgrade to 5.1.
 
Shad said:
Chri5, can confirm it still doesn't work with 5.1! It will crash as soon as you try to connect to ESX to import the VM. I had to install ESXi 5.0, import the VM and then upgrade to 5.1.
Click to expand...

It's a quality clanger from VMW. I did get told the target release day but I forget :rolleyes: I keep checking the download page to see if the build date on Converter changes.
 
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