Installation guide

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VMware ESX Server Administration Guide
You can address the file system by using the name of its head partition; for example,
vmhba1:3:0:1.
Names a VMFS volume
vmkfstools -S mydisk vmhba1:3:0:1
This example illustrates assigning the name of mydisk to the new file system.
Creates a new VMFS virtual disk file
vmkfstools -c 2000m mydisk:rh6.2.dsk
This example illustrates creating a 2GB VMFS file with the name of rh6.2.dsk on
the VMFS volume named mydisk. The rh6.2.dsk file represents an empty disk
that may be accessed by a virtual machine.
Imports the contents of a virtual disk to the specified file on a SCSI device
vmkfstools -i ~/vms/nt4.dsk vmhba0:2:0:0:nt4.dsk
The example illustrates importing the contents of a virtual disk (that contains
Windows NT 4.0) from the service console’s file system to a file named nt4.dsk on
target 2 of SCSI adapter 0.
You can configure a virtual machine to use this virtual disk by adding the following
lines to its configuration file:
scsi0.virtualDev = vmxbuslogic
scsi0:0.present = TRUE
scsi0:0.name = vmhba0:2:0:0:nt4.dsk
Migrate virtual machines to VMware GSX Server or VMware Workstation, then
back to VMware ESX Server
Note: The following example, illustrating the -e and -i options, result in the export
or import of a virtual disk.
This example illustrates migrating a virtual machine’s virtual disk file from ESX Server
to VMware GSX Server or VMware Workstation, then migrating the virtual disk back to
ESX Server.
vmkfstools -e winXP.vmdk vmhba0:6:0:1:winXP.dsk
The preceding command exports the winXP.dsk virtual disk file to one or more
.vmdk files, maximum size 2GB, that you can use as a virtual disk in a virtual machine
on GSX Server or Workstation. The resultant winXP.vmdk file(s) can reside on a
VMFS volume, or an /ext2, /ext3, or NFS file system.
The following example imports a GSX Server or Workstation virtual disk file into the
VMFS volume on the specified SCSI device.