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.
thanks!
Thanks for the share man . . .
Thanks man!
Thanks for share man
Thanks indeed!
While this works, it gives limited options…for example, if you have thin-provisioned disks, that are only using 10GB, but provisioned for something larger, when copying from the data store, you end up with a file size of the provisioned size. Using the vCenter standalone converter seems to be a better option imo.
Well the vCenter standalone converter documentation dosen’t say how to copy from esx to vmware workstation.
Don’t want to test if I do wrong without guidens./Magnus
Never mind I find it in the converter software, thanks.
Any option to exclude some drives? For example, I have a vm with OS partition of 10 GB and another partition (Data)with 500 GB. Any option to copy the VM with only OS partition ?
Does the vCenter standalone converter work for vm conversions between any versions of ESXi and Workstation? I need to copy a vm hosted on ESXi4.1.0 to Workstation 8. Any input will be greatly appreciated
Yes, should work just fine. When you convert choose Hardware Version 8 or lower.
Any option to convert or copy a powered on VM in an ESX server to a VMware workstation? I have limitations to power off the VM.
Also, please suggest if any option to exclude some drives? For example, I have a vm with OS partition of 10 GB and another partition (Data)with 500 GB. Any option to copy the VM with only OS partition ?
Clone the VM, then copy the clone. Or use Converter
You can remove the VMDK from the VM to remove a drive or if you use converter you can select which drives to copy.
Thank you for the reply.
Any option / tool to convert or copy a powered on VM in an ESX server to a VMware workstation? I have limitations to power off the VM., as it is in production.
I presume you’ve figured it out but for others…
You can make a Snapshot on ESX then copy the original .vmdk, once the copy is complete delete the snapshot. I then create a new VM using the copied .vmdk, we use this technique for development testing VM’s where we need a quick copy of the live machine.
It is better to export and later import.
This will always try to “compress” any unused blocks in the vDisk(s).
If your ESX VM has several snapshots (delta files), will those be migrated to VM Workstation and work properly? A couple years ago I tried to get VM Workstation to work with the delta files without success.
I have not tried, I would clone a VM with snapshots before moving it to Workstation.
Hey, thanks! I had a VM running that I need to clone locally and this work flawlessly.. Direct and simple. Thanks!
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Hi, It’s not going to delete my files from the data store right?
Correct, it just copies.
Thanks a lot!! that was good article…
Thank you!!!!!
Is there anyway that we can use veeam for migration of VM form ESXi to VMware workstation. ?
I don’t see that Veeam supports Workstation as a source, so no. You could try VMware Converter or one of the P2V tools like Platespin, however you should be able to script shutting down a VM via the Workstation API or command-line, copying the files to ESXi and importing them if you will be doing this on a continual basis.
The Workstation 15 APIs might even support moving a VM from Workstation to ESXi, although the API docs for 15 don’t seem to have been released yet.