If you rename the vm, and than storage vmotion it to another datastore it will rename the files. Can be slow for a multiTB vm, but it's easy.
New Import Wizard Available for Migrating VMware ESXi Based Virtual Machines
- Thread starter t.lamprecht
- Start date
Yes, I face the same problem because my thin provisioned vm install depleted my storage at esxi8. Renaming the vmdk by using "vmkfstools - E" described here did not work resulting in a not recognized virtual hard drive. Reclaiming space by using "vmkfstools -K" and exporting by ovftool did not work either. So I hope the fix for importing esxi vm's with whitespace in the name becomes available soon so I can get access to my Home Assistant vm again.
Last edited:
This is a great start. Migrating out of VMware and other virtual machine types is probably the greatest source of friction for adoption of Proxmox. In the future, I hope to see more tools and an even more automated process for moving over hundreds or thousands of VMs from VMware.
Im change the vms' name which insteat the Whitespaces to _, and then migrat once time into wmware first. then migrat second time from vmware to pve after. i could be success. 
im prepare to change the .vmx file at vmware datastores, include changer the file name and the contants in .vmx Which the path/file with Whitespaces.
and then try to migrat into pve.
im prepare to change the .vmx file at vmware datastores, include changer the file name and the contants in .vmx Which the path/file with Whitespaces.
and then try to migrat into pve.
Last edited:
In ESXi the path to the files does not include the human versions of the volume name.
If you ssh into your ESXi server and cd to one of your volumes like this:
cd /vmfs/volumes/"your volume name with spaces and a plus sign"/
Where your ssh session will show you to be is actually something like:
/vmfs/volumes/5dc36516-5eff2340-36jh-90b11xtcce1f
I confess that I did not check whether changing "SSD Raid6 + 2 spares" to "SSD Raid6 and 2 spares" (IN THE ESXi GUI!) had any effect on the jumble of letters and numbers and dashes that represents the "real" name of the volume (to ESXi) but I would be pretty surprised if it did. For one thing the rename took 2 seconds and none of the 20+ production machines on the box noticed, and for another the .vmx and .vmdk files in /vmfs/volumes/5dc36516-5eff2340-36jh-90b11xtcce1f/MY-VMs are not date stamped from when I did I made that change (in fact no files in them are dated then, and turned-off vms have their months-old file dates).
This is ESXi 6.7.0 U3, ftr (and I am just a guy on a forum, I do not profess to be a VMWare expert).
RJD
So what I did to make import of WhiteSpaces work.
First I editet the my esxi according to https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE#Considerations for Mass Import. I set the correct session settings. Then I deleted all snapshots of the VMs (Makes importing 4x faster)
And now to how to FIX the import even with whitespaces. I checked online the commit that fixes the problem and changed the file accordingly on my instance.
Commands
make a back-up of the file:
cp /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm_bak
open file:
nano /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm
edit line 985: (You can see your current line in nano using Strg + c)
Remove everything including the or so the line looks like this:
($parent) = ($parent =~ /^(\S+)$/); # untaint
Reboot.
After that the import even with whitespaces worked for me.
I hope it helps.
First I editet the my esxi according to https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE#Considerations for Mass Import. I set the correct session settings. Then I deleted all snapshots of the VMs (Makes importing 4x faster)
And now to how to FIX the import even with whitespaces. I checked online the commit that fixes the problem and changed the file accordingly on my instance.
Commands
make a back-up of the file:
cp /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm_bak
open file:
nano /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm
edit line 985: (You can see your current line in nano using Strg + c)
Remove everything including the or so the line looks like this:
($parent) = ($parent =~ /^(\S+)$/); # untaint
Reboot.
After that the import even with whitespaces worked for me.
I hope it helps.
Thanks for the video link, Thomas.
Without Youtube/Google Share ID link tracking the link is: https://youtu.be/8Z9Zvt2RxlA
The URL parameter
si is used to track how a link is shared, circumventing cookie blockers.
Last edited:
Hi, everyone, I just tested to import one VM(2TB disk, real data size ~200G) from another ESXi 7.0.2 (free), but this time the VM was shutdown, and the migratgion take 6 hours and succeed(network bandwidth ~105M/s), here is the log:
Code:
transferred 0.0 B of 128.0 KiB (0.00%)
transferred 128.0 KiB of 128.0 KiB (100.00%)
transferred 128.0 KiB of 128.0 KiB (100.00%)
efidisk0: successfully created disk 'local-zfs:vm-105-disk-0,size=1M'
create full clone of drive (vmware9563:ha-datacenter/datastore1/Win2022_Backup/Win2022_Backup.vmdk)
transferred 0.0 B of 2.0 TiB (0.00%)
transferred 20.5 GiB of 2.0 TiB (1.00%)
transferred 41.0 GiB of 2.0 TiB (2.00%)
transferred 61.4 GiB of 2.0 TiB (3.00%)
...
transferred 2.0 TiB of 2.0 TiB (98.00%)
transferred 2.0 TiB of 2.0 TiB (99.00%)
transferred 2.0 TiB of 2.0 TiB (100.00%)
transferred 2.0 TiB of 2.0 TiB (100.00%)
sata1: successfully created disk 'local-zfs:vm-105-disk-1,size=2T'
TASK OK
Last edited:
It's an incredible feature, I'm very excited.
But we are experiencing some problems.
During the Add ESXi phase, all my information is correct, but I am getting timeout.
But we are experiencing some problems.
During the Add ESXi phase, all my information is correct, but I am getting timeout.
Ping runs correctly? If you use Name instead of IP, DNS works?
Witch Version ESXi do you have?
Ping works properly, all ports are open, IP resolves with AD, all rules and access are there.
Something came to my mind, I think my mistake is, should I enter my vCenter information? My ESXi information?
You can use your vCenter, but its very Slow. Please use direct ESXi Connections with user root.
I started reading this thread and then realized that it was 17 pages. I also don't see the ability to search just within this thread, so pardon me if it's already been asked.
I see see the documentation state that VMware versions 6.5 through 8.0 have been tested successfully. Have versions outside of that been tested, unsuccessfully, or just no one has attempted? I asked because I have have a version 5.5 environment that I would like to migrate over.
I see see the documentation state that VMware versions 6.5 through 8.0 have been tested successfully. Have versions outside of that been tested, unsuccessfully, or just no one has attempted? I asked because I have have a version 5.5 environment that I would like to migrate over.
Supposedly someone over at r/Proxmox got it working at 6.0 and 5.5.
Can always manually copy over the .vmdk and .vmdk-flat files over and do a 'qemu-img convert'.
My problem ended up being that the source VMs had snapshots.
Last edited:
Migration Problems extremly slow speed
I installed a fresh pve 8.2 on an Fujitsu Primergy TX300S6 on a new samsung 500 GB ssd.
Install without problems.
I added an ESXi storage (according to the official YT Video) and all my vm's on an VMWare Esxi 6.5.0 (running on Primergy RX300S6) was available.
I wanted to import a Debian12 vm (shuted down).
The vm on ESXi is hosted on truenas via NFS.
I started importing with the default import config and the process was extremely slow, so that I had to cancel the process.
I was at 5% of 64 GB after 2 hours !.
What can I do ?. Anything more to do before migration ?
I installed a fresh pve 8.2 on an Fujitsu Primergy TX300S6 on a new samsung 500 GB ssd.
Install without problems.
I added an ESXi storage (according to the official YT Video) and all my vm's on an VMWare Esxi 6.5.0 (running on Primergy RX300S6) was available.
I wanted to import a Debian12 vm (shuted down).
The vm on ESXi is hosted on truenas via NFS.
I started importing with the default import config and the process was extremely slow, so that I had to cancel the process.
I was at 5% of 64 GB after 2 hours !.
What can I do ?. Anything more to do before migration ?