Unable to build a VM with an existing vmdk-file

[VirtualMachin15]

Hello!

I have build a virtual machine in oracles "virtual box". This virtual machine has the "vmdk." fileformat.

Now I want to integrate this vmdk-File as a virtual machine in my VMWare environment. In VSphere I set all parameters and can implement the existing vmdk-File as a new VM . But when I start the virtual machine, the esxi-Host crashes and I have to reboot the esxi-Host and remove the VM.

Can somebody give me an advice please, what I can do, to integrate an existing vmdk-file as a VM correctly?

I attached a pdf-File with screenshots of the installation-steps.

Thanks for reading.

[a_p_]

ESXi uses another virtual disk file format than hosted products, and it might be required to convert the virtual disk format to the supported format.

Since you are talking about a single .vmdk file, I assume that it is a "MonoliticSparse" file format. You can see this when you open the .vmdk file in a Hex-Editor. The files starts with "KDMV" and has a description starting at position 200h. To convert the virtual disk to a supported format for ESXi you can use the vmware-vdiskmanager command line tool that comes with VMware Workstation.

André

[VirtualMachin15]

Hello Andre,

Thank you for your Response.

I have installed the vmdiskmanager, but I don't know how to use the following command:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 4 -h esx3.example.com -u admin -f password.txt "[storage1] <VMname>/targetDisk.vmdk"

I tried to execute this comand from the virtual machine, where the vmdk-File is stored. Do I have to execute this command from the exsi-Host?

Bye!

[a_p_]

Although the option to directly convert the virtual disk to an ESXi host shows up in the examples of the commands help output, it seems that it doesn't exist/work anymore. What you may do is to convert the virtual disk on the local system, and then upload the resulting .vmdk files (a descriptor and a data .vmdk file) to the ESXi host's datastore.

André

[VirtualMachin15]

@andre, @vuzzini, @Praveenmna:

Thank you guys for your help and advices. Finally i converted it with a V2V-Tool. While initializing the V2V-Tool with needed parameters, i was able to convert the disk from IDE to SCSI. After uploading the converted disk on a datastore, VSphere detected it as a correct vmdk-disk.

Unfortunately I have now a new Problem. When I start the VM (it is a Fedora-Linux-System), during the booting-sequence i get a failure-message. The failure message ist attached here.

Do anybody know, what I can do here?

[hapip87]

please check

&amp;quot;Failed to read block&amp;quot; during fsck

[vuzzini]

Try this  https://blogs.fsfe.org/samtuke/?p=665 & read through this https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=995843

[Praveenmna]

V2V  is a much easier and faster approach here. Then  the new VM will have appropriate disk format as needed for ESXi.

[vuzzini]

Hello VirrtualMachineTN1000,

In the screenshot attached I noticed that you selected an IDE controller for the vmdk, could you try using SCSI controller with LSI Logic Parallel controller and try to start the VM ? If this does not work, the best option would be to use VMware Standalone converter and convert the VM.