Putting VM images on a NAS with ESXi

you can access the vmware machine shell by alt + F2 or alt + ctrl + f2
then type "unsupported" and enter
it will look like as if you are no typing
login using the root password and find the images
move the vmdk images to the nas

good luck

Thanks for the comment. Do you have a list of commands or know where i may find information to execute finding and relocating the images. I don't have Unix experience.

thanks.

#  you can view the file systems using
df -h
# it will show you which file systems are mounted and their size.
# you should mount an nfs share on your nas
mount nasmachine:/nfs/share /mnt
# to copy the images
cp *.vmdk /mnt/your/vmware/dir/
then configure the nfs share on the vmware machine and connect to the image.
to change permissions if needed use
chmod 755 filename

If you are intending to migrate your VMs from Local Storage to the NAS Box which you have mentioned above, you can use the VMware vConverter 4.0 to migrate the VMs.

Is there a way to do this from the Windows 2003 system rather than using the Unix commands?

Even though WinSCP helps you to move the VMDKs and associated files, the better way of doing this is by using VMware vConverter 4.0 since it automatically modifies the VMs you are moving based on the Host which is going to host the VMs.

Thanks for all you help. Unfortunately i need to create a NFS share on my windows 2003 box. I found so much information on how to set this up. Some asking to modify the AD schema. Does anyone know the best approach for doing this for VM ESXi? I would be nice to get an idea before i just pick a solution and run into a possible caveat, or problem down the road.

Thanks for all your help.