VMware is widely used to deploy virtual environment. Vmdk file is the virtual disk of VMware virtual machine and it can be used to restore VM.
Updated by Nick Zhao on 2022/10/19
VMware is a popular virtualization solution, providing a powerful hypervisor to let users deploy virtual environment. Problems can be avoided in operation and maintenance. Sometimes certain file or VM needs to be repaired.
VMDK is the important file for a VM because it is the virtual disk of VM, the same important as the hard disk of physical VM. With virtual disk, you can recover the old VM or create new VM containing the old data.
VMDK can be easily found in vCenter, just right-click a VM in vCenter > select Editing Settings > expand Hard disk. You will get the directory of its vmdk file in Disk File and then you can copy the vmdk file in datastore.
vCenter is the VM management tool for VMware vSphere. It can be used to create new VM, export and import VM, etc. After you get the vmdk file, you can create new VM in vCenter. Before that, you need to copy the vmdk file to data so you can select it later.
1. In vCenter, right-click a cluster or host > select New Virtual Machine
2. In New Virtual Machine Wizard, select Create a virtual machine in the first step > click Next
3. Give a name to the new VM > select a location on the host for the VM > click Next
4. Select a compute source for the new VM > click Next
5. Select the storage for the new VM > click Next
6. Select compatibility > click Next
7. Select a guest OS > click Next
8 In Customize hardware section, you can use the vmdk file. Click Add New Device > select Existing Hard Disk > select the vmdk file > click OK
9 Review the information of the new VM > click Finish
In fact, except for vmdk file, you can also restore VM from OVF/OVA file (the template of an entire VM).
Vmdk file can be not only used in VMware environment, but also other virtual environments. Some virtualization service vendors' VM management tools can help directly import VMware virtual disk or the whole VM, like VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, Citri Hypervisor's XenCenter, etc.
Virtual disks in different environments are saved with different formats, like VMware's vmdk format, KVM's raw format and qcow2 format. You can convert vmdk file to another format of virtual disk to use the vmdk file in another virtual environment.
Qemu-img is a powerful v2v tool, which supports converting virtual hard disk of vhd, qcow2,raw, vhdx, qcow, vdi, qed, zvh and zvhd2. You can simply download it from the Internet.
It is a simple convert virtual disk with Qemu-img. You just need a line of command:
qemu-img convert -p -f vmdk -O qcow2 .guest_vm.vmdk .guest_vm.qcow2
-p: presenting the conversion progress
-f: format of the source image
-O: format of the target image
Vmdk files and the VM templates can help restore VM but they are not the best way to protect virtual machine. Backup is more suitable for data security.
vmdk files and VM templates need manual management but a professional backup system will help manage and backup virtual environment scientifically.
Vinchin Backup & Recovery supports multiple virtualization platforms including VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer), Red Hat Virtualization, Oracle Linux KVM, etc. You can add one or more virtualization platforms to Vinchin backup server for centralized management.
To backup VM, you just need to add servers to Vinchin backup server and then select the VMs to backup agentlessly. There are many useful backup strategies to let you backup VM as you wish, like incremental backup, data compression, data encryption, etc.
The restore process also just requires you to select a host to restore the VM. You can even select a host of another virtualization platform to perform cross-platform migration.
You can easily start to use this brilliant system with a 60-day full-featured free trial. Just click the button to get the installation package.
Vmdk file is the virtual disk of VMware virtual machine, which contains data and applications as the hard disk of physical machine so it can be used to recover VM. The directory of vmdk file can be found in vCenter. After you get the vmdk file from datastore, you can restore vm from the vmdk file.
To recover other VM from vmdk file, you need the VM management tool or virtual disk converter to convert the entire VM or virtual hard disk.
The best way to protect virtual machine is making backup. You can use Vinchin Backup & Recovery to protect your virtual environment. Don't miss the free trial.
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