Specifications

CHAPTER 5 Moving and Sharing Virtual Machines
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Moving Older Virtual Machines
If you have created a virtual machine using GSX Server 1 or another VMware product
(not including VMware Workstation 3.1 and later), you must upgrade the virtual
hardware the first time you run it under GSX Server 3. Once you have done this, you
can follow the instructions in Moving a VMware GSX Server 3 Virtual Machine on
page 163.
If you have created a virtual machine using GSX Server 1 or another VMware product
(not including VMware Workstation 3.1 and later), and you want to move it to a
different computer or to another directory on your host, you need to perform the
following tasks.
Note: These instructions assume that you are using a virtual disk — stored in a set of
.vmdk or .dsk files on your host computer.
It is always safest to make backup copies of all the files in your virtual machine’s
directory before you start a process like this.
Virtual Machines May Use Relative or Absolute Paths
In GSX Server 1, the path names for all files associated with a virtual machine were
absolute, or fully qualified, meaning the complete route to the files on the host was
stored. For example, the absolute path to a virtual disk file might be C:\Documents
and Settings\<user name>\My Documents\My Virtual
Machines\<machine name>\<machine name>.vmdk.
With GSX Server 2 and higher, path names to files are relative, meaning the path to the
each file is relative to the currently active directory. For example, if you are in the
virtual machine’s directory, the relative path to the virtual disk file is
<machine name>.vmdk.
Preparing Your Virtual Machine for the Move
1. Use GSX Server 1 to open the virtual machine. If the virtual machine has more
than one virtual disk and if the virtual disks use different disk modes, you must
use the Configuration Editor (choose Settings > Configuration Editor) to
change one or more of the virtual disks so they all use the same mode.
2. Be sure you know whether the virtual disk is set up as an IDE disk or a SCSI disk.
You can check this in the virtual machine settings editor.
Also, note the size of the virtual disk you are moving. You need this information
when you prepare the new host machine, as described in the next section.