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I've an linux image(debian) running on VMWare ESX 3.1. Is it possible to copy that image and run it locally on my local VMWare workstation? how?

pindiwala
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7 Answers7

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Just open up the VI client, shut down the VM, browse to the datastore and then download the image. Pretty straightforward really, I do it from ESXi 3.5 -> Workstation 6.5 all the time.

saschabeaumont
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I believe that while ESX (commercial) is reverse-compatible to Server (free), Server is NOT forward-compatible to ESX.

Therefore, you can import Server images to ESX, but not the other way around.

You may be able to go from an ESX host to an ESXi (free) host, however.

warren
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As far as I remember that was exactly what I did a few weeks ago. I exported the image (export facility is included in the ESX, but you'll have to power off the image while you export it). Once the image was exported I ran it through the VMware converter (free tool) and converted it to run on a workstationr/player. However my laptop always crashes when I install VMWorkstation so I run it om a VMPlayer.

Kasper
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We also have such an environment and are working on it since past 5 years. We have ESXi 3.5 virtualized environment running Centos OS virtual machines amongst others. To use the virtual machine from ESXi on our local machine, we have installed VMWare Workstation (also VMWare Player). We take a complete mondo backup using mondoarchive. We then transfer these images on our local machine. From these images, we restore the ESXi based virtual machine in our local VMWare Workstation environment. It has been a great success for last five years and we have never faced any problem with it.

Martijn Pieters
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Manoj Agarwal
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This is a nice article describes how to convert different images: Please go throught it. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/vmware-converter.html

Rajasekhar
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You can also user Vizioncore vConverter or FastSCP for your migration.

Pavlo Svirin
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Kasper, what version of ESX are you running? Trying to export an image from our ESX server always ends in a I/O error (don't have access to the server right now so I cannot remember the exact error message).

Would love to get this feature working but I not found anything on the web that might help with this specific error.