{"id":2076,"date":"2015-01-13T10:33:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T10:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/?p=2076"},"modified":"2015-01-13T10:33:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T10:33:11","slug":"converting-the-sparseimage-to-vmdk-format","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/?p=2076","title":{"rendered":"Converting the Sparseimage to VMDK format"},"content":{"rendered":"

During this I will be using to Command Line utilities that are installed as part of VMware Fusion.<\/p>\n

First off, open \u2018Disk Utility\u2019, located at \u2018\/Applications\/Utilities\/\u2019, and select the volume called \u2018ServerHD\u2019 from the list of disks, as shown in the screenshot below.<\/p>\n

\"Post-370-26-Disk-Utility-Unmount\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now click the button named \u2018Unmount\u2019 in the top of the window.
\nThe text \u2018ServerHD\u2019 in the list of disks, should now be dimmed slightly.<\/p>\n

While the volume \u2018ServerHD\u2019 is still selected, click the button named \u2018Info\u2019 in the top of the window. This will bring up a information window, containing detailed information about the volume \u2018ServerHD\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Post-370-27-Disk-Utility-Info\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this case we are interested in the information called \u2018Disk Identifier\u2019. In my case this is \u2018disk2s2\u2032, note down the disk number, in my case \u2018disk2\u2032.<\/p>\n

Now close the \u2018Disk Utility\u2019 application.<\/p>\n

Open up \u2018Terminal\u2019 located in \u2018\/Applications\/Utilities\/\u2019.<\/p>\n

Run the following command:<\/p>\n

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cd<\/span> \/<\/span>Applications<\/span>\/<\/span>VMware<\/span>\\<\/span> Fusion<\/span>.<\/span>app<\/span>\/<\/span>Contents<\/span>\/<\/span>Library<\/span>\/<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Using the Command Line utility called \u2018vmware-rawdiskCreator\u2019, I will create a VMDK, which actually links to the Sparseimage, using the below command.
\nPlease adjust the command with the disk number (\u2018disk2\u2032), noted down earlier, and with a output path and file name of your choice (\u2018\/Users\/mads\/Desktop\/OS-X-Template-link\u2019).<\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\/<\/span>vmware<\/span>–<\/span>rawdiskCreator <\/span>create<\/span> \/<\/span>dev<\/span>\/<\/span>disk2 <\/span>fullDevice<\/span> \/<\/span>Users<\/span>\/<\/span>mads<\/span>\/<\/span>Desktop<\/span>\/<\/span>OS<\/span>–<\/span>X<\/span>–<\/span>Template<\/span>–<\/span>link <\/span>lsilogic<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In my case I now have a VMDK file on my Desktop called \u2018OS-X-Template-link.vmdk\u2019. But this is in fact a empty VMDK file, linking to the Sparseimage.<\/p>\n

Using the Command Line utility called \u2018vmware-vdiskmanager\u2019, I will now convert the VMDK-link file to a actual VMDK file containing the contents of the Sparseimage.
\nRun the below command, and as before change the input file (\u2018\/Users\/mads\/Desktop\/OS-X-Template-link.vmdk\u2019) and output file (\u2018\/Users\/mads\/Desktop\/OS-X-Template.vmdk\u2019), with the files of your choice.<\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\/<\/span>vmware<\/span>–<\/span>vdiskmanager<\/span> –<\/span>r<\/span> \/<\/span>Users<\/span>\/<\/span>mads<\/span>\/<\/span>Desktop<\/span>\/<\/span>OS<\/span>–<\/span>X<\/span>–<\/span>Template<\/span>–<\/span>link<\/span>.<\/span>vmdk<\/span> –<\/span>t<\/span> 4<\/span> \/<\/span>Users<\/span>\/<\/span>mads<\/span>\/<\/span>Desktop<\/span>\/<\/span>OS<\/span>–<\/span>X<\/span>–<\/span>Template<\/span>.<\/span>vmdk<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The \u20184\u2019 option in the above command, specifies that the output file should be in the format \u2018preallocated ESX-type virtual disk\u2019, which will generate a preallocated VMDK usable on ESX and ESXi hypervisiors. In my case this will amount to a 30GB VMDK file on my Desktop.
\nThis command takes quite some time to finish, but it displays progress information along the way.<\/p>\n

When it is finished, you can delete the Link file (\u2018\/Users\/mads\/Desktop\/OS-X-Template-link.vmdk\u2019), because it is not needed any more.
\nAlso you can open up \u2018Disk Utility\u2019 located in \u2018\/Applications\/Utilities\/\u2019 and eject the Sparseimage file \u2018ServerHD.sparseimage\u2019<\/p>\n

I now have two VMDK files on the Desktop:<\/p>\n

OS-X-Template.vmdk
\nOS-X-Template-flat.vmdk<\/p>\n

The \u2018OS-X-Template.vmdk\u2019 is a descriptive file, containing information about the actual storage VMDK file, called \u2018OS-X-Template-flat.vmdk\u2019. They are both relevant, as they together form the VMDK disk I will be uploading to the Datastore in vCenter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During this I will be using to Command Line utilities that are installed as part of VMware Fusion. First off, open \u2018Disk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-info-on-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}