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Fairly new with vmware. We need to copy 2 vmdk files from the data store to a USB storage (Mounted on a VM on the host in question). The vmdk files are not the vmdks on which the OS resides; they simply make up a spanned volume on a windows 2003 OS.

What's the best practice at copying online vmdk files please ?

joebegborg07
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    Use something like this to backup the VM - https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html – joeqwerty Nov 15 '16 at 16:43
  • @joeqwerty thanks for your suggestion. I don't need to backup the vm, I need to copy vmdks attached to the VM. I was hoping not to include 3rd party software (with the exception of vmware tools). – joebegborg07 Nov 15 '16 at 16:50

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This is another article described how to copy vmdk files to an external USB drive: http://www.vladan.fr/plug-in-the-external-usb-drive-to-esx-server-directly-to-backup-or-copy/ But I would personally do that simply browsing the datastore and copying the vmdk files off.

batistuta09
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Here's is the exact process how to clone or copy a running virtual machine:

http://virtuallyhyper.com/2012/04/cloning-a-vmdk-while-the-vm-is-powered-on/

Hope this helps.

Net Runner
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  • Thanks for your reply. The VM is not running off the 2 disks in question. The OS vmdk is another separate disk. Also would it be possible to achieve that through vsphere > Datastore browser ? – joebegborg07 Nov 15 '16 at 18:02
  • Thanks. It would be useful to give some context in a sentence. In particular, the article assumes the availability of [`vmkfstools`](https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/vcli41/doc/reference/vmkfstools.html), which is [part](https://vdc-download.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/0a40d9c5-4d4b-490d-8efa-e373a0ff2109/bf1032c8-e042-42a3-b87a-a77cb162f232/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-command-line-interface-concepts-examples-guide.pdf) of [vSphere CLI](https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/). – Nemo Apr 12 '18 at 17:13