How To Convert VMware GSX Server VM To ESX Server VM

As Vmware ESX Server become more popular and VMware GSX server in no longer supported by Vmware you might going to need to upgrade your virtual environment to much robust and advanced product.

Most organization today making the switch to VMware ESX server, however once making the move and installing VMware ESX server moving your virtual machines to the new server is not as simple as copy paste.

If your GSX virtual machines are configured with IDE hard drive you probably one of the lucky administrators out there and all you need to do is run a simple command.

To convert GSX virtual machine with SCSI Hard Drive to ESX server virtual machines follow the steps below:

  1. Open the ESX server using and FTP client (I used WinSCP)
  2. Log in as root
  3. Copy the GSX virtual machine to the ESX server, the path is usually /vmfs/volumes/Local01/vmname
  4. After copying log in to the ESX server using a SSL client (I used Putty)
  5. Go to the GSX Virtual machine location (the one copied in step 3)
  6. Issue the command vmkfstools -i <vmdk_file_name>.vmdk <vmdk_new_file_name>.vmdk

vmkfstools –i win2003gsx.vmdk win2003esx.vmdk

Please note that if the GSX virtual machine configured with IDE drive you will have to convert the HDD first to SCSI and then make the GSX to ESX conversion, the best option to do that is to use a 3 party tool like FlateSpin Power convert.


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