Apple - Moving Fusion VMs to ESXi
After arduous research and trial and error, I've finally been able to solve this issue. First of all, if you're migrating Fusion VMs to ESXi, I recommend not using the OVF tool. At least for me, it never worked properly. Instead, I used the vmware-vdiskmanager
tool, which is built into Fusion. The instructions for this migration are listed below:
- Open Terminal.
- Run the following command, inserting the correct VMWare Fusion vmdk file source and new vmdk destination:
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager -r /PATH/TO/vmware_fusion.vmwarevm/vmware_fusion.vmdk -t 4 /PATH/TO/esxi.vmdk
- The conversion process, once complete, will create two files:
filename.vmdk
, andfilename-flat.vmdk
.- Launch the vSphere client through your web browser to your ESXi server.
- Once logged in, go to
File | New | Virtual Machine
.- In the Configuration window, select
Custom
.- In the Storage window, select the datastore location to store the new VM.
- In the Virtual Machine Version window, use the default option of
Virtual Machine Version: 8.
- Select the desired settings for
Guest OS, CPUs, Memory, Network
, andSCSI Controller
.- In the Select a Disk window, choose the
Do Not Create Disk
option.- Click the
Finish
button.- In the ESXi server settings, select the Configuration tab then click on
Storage
.- In Storage, select your datastore and right-click to select
Browse Datastore
.- Select the folder name that corresponds to the new VM.
- Select the
Upload
button.- Upload the
filename.vmdk
andfilename-flat.vmdk
files from Step 3.- Once complete, you will only see the
filename.vmdk
file in the datastore.- Select the VM and
Edit virtual machine settings
under theGet Started
tab.- Click the
Add
button in theVirtual Machine Properties
window.- For Device Type, select
Hard Disk
, and chooseUse an existing virtual disk
.- Locate the datastore and select the existing disk.
- In the
Advanced Options
, leave the default settings.- Select
Finish
andOK
to close the Virtual Machine Properties.- At this point, you should be able to boot to the newly migrated VM.
Guidance for this came from MacTech's June 2013 issue, reproduced at the author's blog here. Many kudos to Rich Trouton for this article.
Some updates for vSphere Client 6.7
- Step 5: Go to
Actions | New Virtual Machine
. - Steps 6 - 9: Configure as desired.
- Step 10: In the
Customize hardware
dialog, remove theNew hard disk
. - Step 12 - 13: Select storage, then
Files
. - Step 18: Select the VM and then
Actions | Edit Settings...
. - Step 19: Click the
Add New Device
button. - Step 20: Select
Existing Hard Disk
. - Step 22: Ignore.