Moving VMs from ESX to Workstation

Updated post for Workstation 12.5 (copy using Workstation)

There are a few ways to migrate VMs around between VMware products including using vCenter Converter, 3rd party tools, and O/S tools (backup/restore) but one of the easiest ways is via the Datastore Browse utility.

I leveraged it a few posts back to move VMs around without vCenter (including vCenter) but here is a quick way to use it to export VMs to run under Workstation.

Step 1 – Open a vSphere client and shut down the VM you want to copy

Step 2 – Right-click on the datastore the VM resides on and select Browse Datastore

Step 3 – Highlight the VM directory on the left and hit the ‘Download” icon in the toolbar

Step 4 – Locate the location on your local machine to copy the VM to and hit ‘ok”

Step 5 – Hit Ok to acknowledge the overwrite message

Step 6 – Monitor the copy window

Step 7 – Launch VMware Workstation, and choose File/Open from the menu

Step 8 – Locate the vmx file for the downloaded VM and click Open

Step 9 – Check the VM settings and make sure your system can handle it (primarily CPU/memory)

Step 10 – Power on the VM. Leave “I copied it” selected which will create a new VMware ID for the VM and hit OK.

Step 11 – You may get a message depending on the OS and hardware configuration. Since you moved an existing, running VM you should have the drivers you need. Hit OK.

Step 12 – Enjoy the goodness of a copied VM.

Leave a comment for questions, suggestions, snark, whatever.