How to import VMware converter vmdk file to vcenter 5

[suhag79]

Hello,

Below is the scenario,

- We have one physical server with win 2003 OS installed. Installed VMware converter on this box.

- Conver all the physical disk to VMDK through VMware Converter.

- Copied all the VMDK file with vmx and uploaded to vcenter Datastore.

Now when we try to import the machine through vmx import, the disks which are there with vmx showing as sparse disk. Now how to power ON the VM with this. SHould i convert this to thin/thick before this.

-why this is showing as sparse.

Just take a note that - i had to do this as the latency between physical server and vcenter is very high and disk size is 1 TB. If you still feel any other good practice other than above then pl let us know in this scenario.

Regards,

Suhag.

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Message was edited by: Suhag Desai

Message was edited by: Suhag Desai

[a_p_]

VMware Workstation used a sparse file format for its virtual disks by default. In order to use the virtual disks on an ESXi host you need to convert them to a supported format. You can either use VMware Workstation's vmware-vdiskmanager command line tool to convert the virtual disk prior to uploading it to the ESXi host, or simply use the VMware Converter and convert the Workstation VM to the ESXi host as the destination.

André

[suhag79]

THank you andre and apologies for mentioning workstation. Actually, i have used vmware stand alone converter and i select destination file as VMware workstation.

Still the same thing i have to do?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Yes, if you converted a system with a destination "VMware Workstation", the .vmdk files will become sparse by default. To use them on ESXi you need to convert them again.

André

[MBrownWFP]

Instead of selecting destination type of Workstation in Converter, choose type VMware Infrastructure. Converter will then ask for your ESXi server IP and credentials.

When the conversion job runs it will create the VM directly on ESXi server, there is no import required