newbie: convert split vmdk to vhdx?

[aweber1nj]

Sorry for the newbie question. Can StarWind V2V convert a vmdk to vhdx IF the vmdk was created as split files? That is, one virtual disk is actually multiple, 2GB, .vmdk files on the host.

(Testing/trying a conversion from VMWkst 16 to Hyper-V due to poor performance in Workstation.)

Thanks!

[yaroslav (staff)]

Welcome to StarWind Forum!

Those must be the snapshots. Merge them prior to conversion.

[aweber1nj]

No, they are all part of one vmdk disk. They are used as the disk space grows (it is not all pre-allocated), and the option is available when you create any new disk for a VM in VMWare. Snapshots are a totally different concept.

For example, see step #7, here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Works ... D684D.html

Code: Select all

V:\Windows Server 2012R2>dir *.vmdk
 Volume in drive V is VM3
 Volume Serial Number is D8BF-86C9

 Directory of V:\Windows Server 2012R2

01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,077,163,520 Windows Server 2012-s001.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,088,108,032 Windows Server 2012-s002.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,081,226,752 Windows Server 2012-s003.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,858,666,496 Windows Server 2012-s004.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,148,583,936 Windows Server 2012-s005.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,037,252,096 Windows Server 2012-s006.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,026,504,192 Windows Server 2012-s007.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,067,791,872 Windows Server 2012-s008.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,121,007,104 Windows Server 2012-s009.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,021,785,600 Windows Server 2012-s010.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,727,332,352 Windows Server 2012-s011.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,023,882,752 Windows Server 2012-s012.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,888,223,232 Windows Server 2012-s013.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,432,944,640 Windows Server 2012-s014.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,122,579,968 Windows Server 2012-s015.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,146,041,856 Windows Server 2012-s016.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,071,986,176 Windows Server 2012-s017.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     2,111,242,240 Windows Server 2012-s018.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM     1,662,320,640 Windows Server 2012-s019.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM       906,362,880 Windows Server 2012-s020.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM       134,479,872 Windows Server 2012-s021.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s022.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s023.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s024.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s025.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s026.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s027.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s028.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s029.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s030.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s031.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s032.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s033.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s034.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s035.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s036.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s037.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s038.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s039.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s040.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s041.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s042.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s043.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s044.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s045.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s046.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s047.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s048.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s049.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s050.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s051.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s052.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s053.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s054.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s055.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s056.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s057.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s058.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s059.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s060.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s061.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s062.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s063.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s064.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s065.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s066.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s067.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s068.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s069.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s070.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s071.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s072.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s073.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s074.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s075.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s076.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s077.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s078.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s079.vmdk
01/05/2022  08:54 AM           327,680 Windows Server 2012-s080.vmdk
01/05/2022  09:04 AM           131,072 Windows Server 2012-s081.vmdk
07/19/2019  04:34 PM             4,536 Windows Server 2012.vmdk
              82 File(s) 37,774,954,936 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  380,432,412,672 bytes free

[yaroslav (staff)]

No, the software treats each VMDK as a separate one. Try converting the entire VM OR try aggregating VMDKs into one prior to conversion.

[aweber1nj]

I'm not sure that's the case. I went ahead and tested it (I figured I had nothing to lose except some time). By pointing the "Local File" at the first vmdk file (which is tiny - must be some kind of index to the remainder of the actual data/blob files?), the software converted it to a vdhx of what I considered roughly the correct size.

I then tried attaching that to a "new" VM in Hyper-V Manager, and it booted on the first try!

I'm going to run another test today with a different local VM and see if I get similar results.

Thanks,
AJ

[yaroslav (staff)]

Thanks for your update. Please keep us posted.

[jamiebiswas]

Hello Folks, I am also facing this thing for quite a long but at first I am unable to find the proper way to resolve. But after research I found some proper way to resolve this. So I am sharing how to convert vmdx to vhdx -


Note: The configured size of thin-provisioned disks is correctly displayed using the ls command. The disk space consumed by disk files on a datastore is determined using the du command.
eagerzeroedthick

This is a specified format required for cross-host virtual machine clustering and VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) virtual machines. All blocks for the virtual machine disk are allocated and committed with written zeroes at the time of creation. Basically, I have to find this type of way of solution for my ERP software which is very useful nowadays. Existing disks can be inflated to this format without destroying existing data. For more information, see Enabling clustering features for an existing virtual disk by converting in place (1035823) and Enabling clustering features for an existing virtual disk by converting while copying (1003491).

rdmp

This is the default Raw Device Mapping format with Physical compatibility mode. Most SCSI commands are passed-through to the guest operating system to/from a mapped physical raw LUN. This is required for cross-host virtual machine clustering; both virtual machines share the same mapping file. This format does not support virtual machine snapshots. For more information, see
Converting a virtual disk into a Raw Device Mapping (3443266).
rdm

This is an additional available Raw Device Mapping format with virtual compatibility mode set. A subset of SCSI commands are passed-through to the guest operating system to/from a mapped physical raw LUN. An added benefit of this format is the support of virtual machine snapshots. For more information, see
Converting a virtual disk into a Raw Device Mapping (3443266).
2gbsparse

This format is compatible with Hosted (desktop) products such as VMware Fusion, Player, Server, Workstation, etc. Virtual machine disks are spanned across several 2GB extents to eliminate potential cross-platform file system compatibility issues. For example, FAT32 supports a maximum file size of 4GB. This format is not supported for running virtual machines in VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x.

Note: For SDK purposes, this property is known as sparse2GB in ESXi 5.0 and later. For more information, see Scope of the sparse2GB property in the vSphere API (2044714) and the VirtualDiskType section of the vSphere Web Services SDK Documentation.
Additional information, types, and parameters are available in the vmkfstools manual pages and product documentation.
Review the manual pages on VMware ESX 3.x and 4.x by running: man vmkfstools
Review command information on ESXi 3.x and 4.x hosts or vMA and vCLI by running: vmkfstools --help
For more information, see the Using vmkfstools section in the ESX Configuration Guide on the product documentation pages for your respective version of VMware ESX/ESXi.

Hope this solution will help you properly.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Thanks for sharing your experience!