Can you copy ESXi VM files to USB drive?

C

Choder

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 14, 2000
Messages
1,276
I want to keep backup copies of my VMWare machines on an external hard drive, if possible. Any ideas? I have a sneaking suspicion that the service console that ESXi lacks is going to get me on this one.
 
Open your VI client and browse the datastore that the VMs are on. You can then download the VM files to your host machine / usb drive.

Click on the host machine
Summary
Right Click datastore1 (or whatever you named it)
Browse
Select the files you want to keep
Click the Download a file to host machine button
 
gimp0 said:
Open your VI client and browse the datastore that the VMs are on. You can then download the VM files to your host machine / usb drive.

Click on the host machine
Summary
Right Click datastore1 (or whatever you named it)
Browse
Select the files you want to keep
Click the Download a file to host machine button
Click to expand...

Not the best idea.

instead -> do file, export as virtual appliance, and then copy that to the usb drive. It makes sure that you don't have any explicit UUID references in the vmx files, and also makes sure you don't hit a max-file-size limitation anywhere :)

edit: And it only copies used space.
 
No worries - it's also in a form that workstation/player/server can run with minimal finagling too :)
 
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