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Mike Reed

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ESXi4 - How do I change default folder for snapshots to a different datastore?

Hi,

I have an ESXi4.1 (free version) host with a single VM that is very close to running out of disk space on its datastore (Datastore1).  I cannot backup the VM (using Trilead's VMX) since it wants to create a snapshot - and there's not enough disk space.  I'd like to temporarily change the location of snapshots to datastore2 (NAS with NFS) which has plenty of room.  I've read that one can add a "WorkingDir=..." setting to the .VMX config file.  I find plenty of articles that describe an example of the the syntax as:

workingDir = "/vmfs/volumes/46f1225f-552b0069-e03b-00145e808070/vm-snapshots"

How does one determine the datastore identifier for the VM?  Can one use a more user-friendly name, like "datastore1"?

My real goal is to replace the set of mirrored 146GB SAS drives in a Dell PE T110 with two 300GB drives to solve the space issue.  My first step is to backup the VM to my secondary datastore (a NAS using NFS).  Then remove the SAS drives which will be my fallback should I run into any problems in rebuilding this server with larger drives.  Then install new drives, install ESXi4.1, create primary datastore (mirrored 300GB drives), create secondary datastore (the NAS with backup of VM), then restore the VMX backup to the primary datastore...

I am a ESXi newbie, so any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks,
-Mike
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Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Mike Reed

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Thanks for the quick reply!