linux converter

[CalinM]

Hi,

I am trying to automate creation of ubuntu virtual machines. I have a script that creates an ubuntu virtual machine image for ESXi. I am trying to figure out how to upload it to the ESXi server. The disk image is created sparse, "with a hole". That is the file size is 4G but it only takes up 500M on disk.

I tried to upload it with scp but then it's not sparse anymore, it takes up the full 4G at destination

I tried to tar it using the --sparse option. The tar archive is created correctly, only takes up 500M, but the tar on the esxi server can not untar it. Is there a GNU tar for esxi?

I can not fugure out how to use the linux standalone converter to upload the image, are there any samples? I created a job.xml file and tried to us it for the converrsion, but I got the error message: Aborted :-/

Any ideas?

Thank you.

[Nikhil_Patwa]

Hi,

Use VMWare Standalone Converter 4.0 to convert your Linux VM to ESXi. The VMWare Standalone Converter is a free tool and it's very useful to convert VMs to and fro ESXi. Read more on vmware standalone converter 4.0 to get more details on its usage.

Nikhil

[CalinM]

Are you running the converter on Linux or on Windows?

[Nikhil_Patwa]

I have installed the converter in Windows OS and then use it to convert my Linux VM to ESXi server.

check this site http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Use the option of VMWare Infrastructure as your destination for converting the VM to ESXi server.

Nikhil

[CalinM]

Well, my question was how to use the linux converter. Is it even usable?

I cannot use the windows converter because my conversion has to be scripted, on Linux.

Thanks,

Calin

[Nikhil_Patwa]

check out this vmware communities thread http://communities.vmware.com/thread/121418.

Maybe you can get some ideas out from it.

Nikhil