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How to Extract Content from VMDK Files: A Footstep-By-Stride Guide

Sometimes a VM cannot be started, however you may need to access the data stored on a virtual disk used past a VM. This situation tin can happen afterwards the unsuccessful installation of some applications, updates for an operating organisation, malware attacks, accidental file deletion, etc. There are a number of methods that allow yous to access the content of VMDK virtual deejay files. Today'southward blog mail service covers the methods that can exist used if a VMDK virtual disk is not encrypted or corrupted. If a VMDK file is encrypted or corrupted, another technique must be practical. The post-obit sections of the blog post about how to open VMDK files are included in this article:

• How Data is Stored in VMDK Files
• Methods that demand powering on a VM
  • Using Live DVD even if an OS on a VM is dead (a legacy method)
    • Example: Opening VMDK files on ESXi
  • How to mount a VMDK file equally a virtual deejay to a healthy VM on VMware ESXi, Workstation or Player
    • Example 1: Mounting a virtual disk to a VM running on ESXi
    • Case 2: Mounting a virtual disk to a VM running on VMware Player or VMware Workstation

• Methods that don't need powering on a VM
  • Mounting VMDK files in a host OS with VMware Workstation
    • Example 1: Mounting VMDK on a Linux host
    • Instance 2: How to mount VMDK on a Windows host

• Using seven-zip to excerpt content from VMDK files
  • How to open VMDK files with 7-zip on Linux
  • How to open VMDK files with seven-zip on Windows

• Other methods to open VMDK files in Linux
  • How to mount VMDK files by using /dev/loop
  • How to mount VMDK files with kpartx

How the Information is Stored in VMDK Files

VMDK is a virtual machine disk file format, which is the open format developed past VMware. This virtual disk format has the .vmdk extension of files and is used by VMware and VirtualBox virtual machines. However, virtual machines residing on ESXi servers use a slightly unlike format of vmdk virtual disks – a virtual disk descriptor and virtual disk extent that contains raw information of the virtual disk are ii separate files on the ESXi datastore. The pattern of a virtual disk descriptor name is diskname.vmdk and the pattern of a virtual deejay extent proper name that contains all raw data is diskname-flat.vmdk, accordingly. As for virtual disks of the VMware Workstation format, a virtual disk is represented equally a single diskname.vmdk file (monolithic sparse) which is an extent data file that contains an embedded virtual disk descriptor. A virtual disk descriptor defines the structure of the virtual disk, virtual disk geometry, virtual hardware version, and IDs.

A virtual deejay descriptor is represented as plain text. On the left side of the screenshot beneath, y'all can see a virtual deejay descriptor of the ESXi format (a vmdk file that can exist opened with whatsoever text editor). On the correct side of the screenshot, y'all can ready optics on the data of the virtual deejay descriptor that is embedded into a single vmdk file of the VMware Workstation format. The vmdk file is opened in HEX editor.

As you can see, the embedded disk descriptor data is written to the monolithic vmdk file of the Workstation format from the 0x200 address, which is the number of the commencement byte. If you lot transform the 200 HEX value to a binary and decimal format, you will get:

200 HEX = 1000000000 Binary = 512 Decimal

This means that if you want to extract the embedded descriptor from the vmdk file, you should extract a portion of data starting from the 512^th byte. VMware virtual deejay descriptor files were reviewed in the blog post about converting VMware VMs to Hyper-V VMs. Read the abovementioned web log post to see how to extract, edit and import an embedded virtual disk descriptor.

On the screenshot beneath, have a expect at two virtual deejay files opened in HEX editor. The same operating system is installed on both virtual disks (the first segmentation used for installing the OS was created and formatted with a built-in Windows disk utility). On the left side of the screenshot a -flat.vmdk file is displayed (ESXi format). The raw data is written from 0x00000000 on this virtual disk -apartment.vmdk file. On the right side of the screenshot, the virtual disk of the Workstation format is displayed and the same data is written from 0x00150000 (byte number 5376) which is not the beginning of the vmdk file.

Now, subsequently familiarizing yourself with the theory, it's fourth dimension to focus on the practical part. Before you lot proceed, it is recommended that yous support your data to prevent any possible virtual disk damage. Perform operations with your disks at your ain responsibility and risk.

Methods That Demand Powering on a VM

Starting time, let'south consider the methods of opening virtual disk images past using existing VMs. The advantages of these methods are simplicity and universality. At the aforementioned time, however, you demand a hypervisor (VMware ESXi, VMware Workstation, VMware Histrion or Oracle VirtualBox) to be installed on your physical computer.

Using a Live DVD fifty-fifty if an Bone on a VM is dead (a legacy method)

The thought behind this method is that yous have a VM and can boot from a DVD disc. The ISO disk image tin can be used equally the DVD disc inserted into a virtual DVD drive of the VM. Afterwards booting an operating organisation from a DVD media, you can mountain the partitions of your virtual disk and re-create files from the virtual disk to a USB hard deejay attached to the VM or to your host machine, or to whatever other machine via the network. Some Alive DVD distributions mount disks (partitions) automatically.

This method tin be called a legacy method because the principle is similar to copying files from concrete disks of physical computers when the installed operating organization cannot boot. This method can exist used to extract information from VMDK disks of VMs running on VMware ESXi and VMware Player/Workstation.

Be enlightened that the operating organization booted from Alive DVD must recognize file systems of partitions of your virtual disk whose files yous want to access. For example, Windows cannot work with Linux file systems such as EXT3, EXT4, ReiserFS, etc. by default. Using additional tools on Windows may help to resolve this result. In turn, modern Linux recognizes Windows file systems such as NTFS and FAT32, hence you lot tin can utilize Linux-based Alive DVD discs to copy files stored on virtual disks used by your Windows VM that cannot kicking.

Instance: Opening VMDK files on ESXi

Allow's consider using this method on an example: when you lot have a VM with Windows Server 2016 on an ESXi host and the Os on the VM cannot boot, but you demand to get the files recorded on the VMDK virtual deejay. In that location are 2 NTFS partitions on the virtual disk – one is the kick arrangement partition and the second is deejay C. The official Ubuntu eighteen installation ISO paradigm is used in the current example. The Ubuntu installation media tin be used as Alive DVD. Upload the ISO image to the datastore that is accessible for the ESXi host on which the VM is residing.

Open up VMware vSphere Customer, go to Hosts and Clusters, select your VM, and click Edit Settings.

In the VM settings window, go to CD/DVD drive options. Select the Datastore ISO File option if you accept the necessary ISO file on the datastore attainable by the ESXi host. Then, for the CD/DVD Media option, click Browse and select the appropriate ISO file on the datastore. The file proper noun is ubuntu-xviii.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso in this example.

Start the VM, boot from the ISO image and select Try Ubuntu Without Installing. Once Ubuntu has booted from the Live DVD media, open up console (Terminal).

Get the root privileges

sudo -i

List available hd devices

ls -al /dev/sd*

There are two partitions - /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

Brand directories to be used equally mount points for each partition.

mkdir /mnt/win-disk1

mkdir /mnt/win-disk2

Mount the partitions of the virtual disk to the appropriate directories.

mountain /dev/sda1 /mnt/win-disk1/

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/win-disk2/

Then list files and directories of the mounted partitions.

ls -al /mnt/win-disk2/

ls -al /mnt/win-disk1/

As yous can see on the screenshot to a higher place, the partition mounted to /mnt/win-disk2 is the sectionalisation used every bit disk C: in Windows.

At present you tin can attach a USB hard deejay bulldoze (HDD) to the USB port of your ESXi host and connect this HDD to the virtual machine with the USB pass-through feature for copying the necessary files stored on the VMDK file used as a virtual disk past a virtual motorcar. Some other style is to use an SMB (CIFS) share and copy the contents of the virtual disk (i.e., the VMDK file) to another location via the network. In our instance, copying information to the SMB share will exist explained. The SMB share has been created on the host whose IP address is 192.168.17.125, the share name is \\192.168.17.125\share, and user10 has write permissions for this share. Don't forget that Linux, unlike Windows, uses the right slash when connecting to the share.

Permit's mount the SMB (CIFS) share on Linux loaded from the live DVD. First, create a directory to be used as the mountain point.

mkdir /mnt/smb-share

Then mountain the SMB (CIFS) share to this directory:

mountain -t cifs -o user=user10 //192.168.17.125/share /mnt/smb-share

Enter the password of the user.

Now your Linux system is connected to the SMB share, and you lot tin copy the necessary contents stored inside the VMDK file to the SMB share over the network. Let's go to the directory to which the SMB share is mounted and copy the bootmgr file from the mounted partition of the virtual disk (the VMDK file on the ESXi datastore) to the current directory (SMB share).

cd /mnt/smb-share

cp /mnt/win-disk-two/bootmgr .

Then brand sure that the necessary files have been copied, and check the contents of your SMB share.

ls -al /mnt/smb-share

As yous tin can come across on the screenshot in a higher place, the bootmgr file used in this case has been copied successfully. Now you know the first method of copying the contents of the VMDK file to another location when an operating system installed on a VM cannot boot. The logics of using this method on VMware Player or VMware Workstation is the same.

How to mount a VMDK file every bit a virtual disk to a healthy VM (ESXi/Workstation/Player)

This method is like to the previous one, but a VMDK virtual deejay should be attached to an existing virtual machine that has a operation operating system. You can attach a VMDK file as an additional virtual deejay to an existing VM running on an ESXi host, VMware Workstation and VMware Thespian. If yous want to open a VMDK file of the ESXi VM on VMware Workstation or Player, you should copy both the virtual disk and its descriptor (vmdk and -apartment.vmdk files) to a physical disk that is accessible for your calculator where VMware Workstation or Thespian is installed. If snapshots have been taken for the VM, and changes take been made with VM disks after that, don't forget to copy the VMDK files of delta (differencing) virtual disks in add-on to the parent VMDK files.

Let's consider two examples – how to open a VMDK virtual deejay of one VM by using another VM on an ESXi host (both are registered on an ESXi host) and how to extract content from a VMDK virtual deejay of an ESXi VM by attaching the virtual disk to a VM of the VMware Workstation format.

Go along in mind that the performance operating system on the showtime (healthy) VM must be compatible with file systems used on a virtual disk of the second VM that has a non-bootable operating system (a VM whose VMDK file y'all want to attach as an additional virtual deejay to extract files).

Instance one: Mounting a virtual disk to a VM running on ESXi

Power off the VM that uses a virtual disk from which files you want to extract. Discover this virtual deejay in the ESXi datastore. Copy the virtual disk to another directory on the same datastore or some other datastore to prevent an mistake caused by virtual deejay lock. In our example, we will evidence how to open up a VMDK file whose name is Win-test2.vmdk (this is a virtual disk of the Win-test2 Windows virtual machine in our case). The ESXi host is managed by vCenter. If you lot use a standalone ESXi host without vCenter, you can use the logics explained in this case – the differences are only in the user interface.

Open VMware vSphere Customer, go to Storage and select the datastore on which the necessary VMDK file is located. Select the VMDK file and click Copy to.

Annotation: If you take a standalone ESXi host and don't have vCenter, open VMware Host Client by entering the IP accost of your ESXi host in the web browser, then become to Storage > [Your datastore name] > Datastore Browser, select your VMDK file and hit Re-create. Select destination and hit the Copy push button to ostend. Recollect, that virtual disks are displayed as VMDK files in the web interface of VMware vSphere Customer and VMware Host Client, just a virtual disk consists of the -flat.vmdk and vmdk files (a virtual disk and its descriptor). You can too open up the ESXi console directly on the server or by connecting via SSH to copy the files.

In the opened window, select the destination. You tin copy the VMDK file to some location on the same datastore or to another datastore. Let's copy the VMDK file to the root directory of the same datastore for this demonstration. Both vmdk and -flat.vmdk files are copied in this example.

Now you need to adhere the VMDK virtual deejay to another healthy VM whose operating organization is working properly. In this example, a VM running Windows Server 2016 on the aforementioned ESXi host is used (the VM proper noun is WinServer2016). A virtual deejay tin be fastened to this healthy VM while the VM is running. In vSphere Customer, go to Hosts and Clusters, select the healthy VM, correct click the VM and striking Edit Settings.

In the window that appears, hit Add New Device and select Existing Hard Disk.

Select the re-create of your VMDK file that yous accept made previously. In the current instance, the copy of Win-test2.vmdk located in the root directory of the datastore has been selected.

Power on the healthy VM to which yous accept attached the virtual disk yous are interested in, if the VM has not been powered on yet. A virtual disk is added on the fly for a running Windows Server 2016 VM. In the invitee Windows Os, go to Computer Direction > Disk Management (or run diskmgmt.msc in the command line) and find your virtual deejay attached. By default, the new attached disk is offline. Right click the disk and hit Online. A disk alphabetic character should be assigned automatically for partitions on the added deejay. If a disk letter has not been assigned for a partition, correct click the partition and hitting Change Drive Letter and Paths.

At present you have total (read/write) access to files and directories of the VMDK virtual disk. But open up the mounted disk in Windows Explorer and copy the necessary content of the VMDK file mounted to the healthy VM. You tin can likewise delete unnecessary data from the fastened VMDK virtual disk (for case, if there are any files that were created by viruses), but be careful and don't harm a virtual disk if at that place are related snapshots for the mounted VMDK disk.

Example 2: Mounting a virtual disk to a VM running on VMware Actor or Workstation

This example is similar to the previous one, but a VM running on VMware Workstation is used to open VMDK files of the ESXi VM. This method tin can be used when there is no free disk infinite on the ESXi datastore to copy a virtual disk, for example. A virtual deejay of the Win-test2 VM that was mentioned in the previous instance volition exist mounted to a VMware Workstation VM to excerpt its content.

In VMware vSphere Client, get to Storage > [Your datastore proper noun] > Files, select your VMDK file and hit Download.

Every bit you recall, a virtual disk of the ESXi format consists of vmdk and -flat.vmdk files. You lot need to download both files to your machine where VMware Workstation or VMware Thespian is installed. When you download a virtual deejay from the ESXi datastore with VMware HTML5 vSphere Client, these two files are packed into a one zip archive.

As an alternative, you can enable SSH access to your ESXi host, become to the datastore directory and copy both virtual disk files to your computer manually by using an SCP client, for instance, WinSCP.

Be aware that when you download a thin provisioned virtual disk from an ESXi datastore that has the VMFS file system to your computer, you will get a lightweight vmdk file and a -flat.vmdk file whose size will exist equal to the maximum provisioned size of the virtual disk (as you would do when downloading a thick provisioned virtual disk). This is considering sparse provisioning tin exist considered equally a VMFS file system feature.

Now you can see two files of the ESXi-format virtual disk that have been downloaded in a ZIP archive. The size of the sparse provisioned virtual disk on the VMFS datastore is nigh 2GB now (see the screenshot above) and the size of the same deejay downloaded to a workstation machine is nigh 8GB (see the screenshot beneath). Unzip the ii files from the archive. By default, the files are extracted to the Win-test2.vmdk directory whose name is the aforementioned as the archive proper name without a file extension.

For performing the next pace, you lot should have a healthy VM with a functional operating organisation on your car with VMware Workstation of Thespian installed. While in the previous example, the VM running Windows Server 2016 was used, a healthy VM running Windows Server 2008 is used in the current example.

Open VMware Workstation or VMware Actor, select your healthy VM and edit virtual machine settings.

In the Hardware tab, hit the Add button.

The Add Hardware Wizard is open up. Select Difficult disk equally the hardware blazon. Then, select a type of disk (you may leave the recommended value). On the Select a Deejay screen, select the Use an existing virtual disk option.

Select the vmdk file (not -apartment.vmdk) you have extracted from the ZIP archive. You tin browse the file or enter the entire path to the file manually.

In the current example, ESXi 6.5 and VMware Workstation xv are being used. The VMware Workstation VM running Windows Server 2008 in our example has the Workstation 12 hardware version (VM version 12). The ESXi VM whose virtual disk we want to adhere has the VM version 7.

VMware Workstation says that the virtual disk copied from the ESXi host is not compatible with this virtual machine:

The selected virtual disk is incompatible with this Workstation 12.x virtual machine. Calculation this disk would brand this virtual machine incompatible with older VMware products.

This error can exist fixed by editing the disk descriptor file (the lightweight vmdk file in the case of virtual disks of ESXi VMs). Open your VMDK file in the text editor and edit the number in the Ddb.virtualHWVersion string. In our case, 13 gets changed to 12.

Note: Think that for virtual disks of VMware Workstation VMs, a virtual disk descriptor is congenital in the virtual disk VMDK file (in that location is no carve up descriptor file as for virtual disks of ESXi VMs).

Later this manipulation, the virtual deejay has been successfully added to the existing VM.

Power on the VM if it has not been powered on yet

Open the Disk Direction in Windows, change your virtual disk status to online, assign a drive letter to a sectionalization and browse the files.

Methods that Don't Need Powering on a VM

The methods that don't require y'all to configure and power on a virtual machine accept their own advantages. Some of these methods don't require installing a hypervisor. Y'all can mount VMDK files directly to your host operating organization in a short menstruation of time.

Mounting VMDK files in a host OS with VMware Workstation

This method requires y'all to take VMware Workstation installed on a Windows or Linux operating system running on your physical computer. VMware Workstation provides a nice feature that allows you lot to mount VMDK files to your host operating system. Virtual disks of the ESXi format and delta disks related to VM snapshots are supported. Similarly to all previous methods considered in this blog post, your operating system must support file systems of virtual disk partitions.

If you lot accept snapshots of your virtual machine, the delta virtual disks are created subsequently creating each snapshot. You should take a parent virtual disk and delta disks available if you want to open a virtual disk country the moment after taking one or another snapshot. In this instance, you lot should mount the appropriate delta virtual deejay to your host operating system. Dependencies related to the parent virtual disk will be resolved automatically.

If you have snapshots but wish to open a parent virtual disk, please open up the parent virtual disk in the read-only mode considering making changes on the parent virtual disk can cause bug with damaging snapshots or linked clones created from a parent virtual machine with the parent virtual deejay. The read-only mode prevents you lot from writing data on a virtual disk later mounting the disk to the host Os. You can mount VMDK virtual disk files if a VM that uses this virtual disk is powered off, or if a particular VM isn't using this virtual disk.

Let's consider how to mount a VMDK virtual deejay of the VMware Workstation VM that has snapshots. There is Windows installed on one NTFS partition on a virtual deejay of the VM. After taking the start snapshot, the Snapshot1.txt file was created in the root directory of the deejay C: and, similarly, afterward taking the second snapshot, the Snapshot2.txt file was created there. The kickoff example is for Linux and the 2nd example is for Windows. Virtual disk files of the onetime Windows XP VM are used in the electric current example.

Case 1: Mounting VMDK on the Linux host

Open VMware Workstation for Linux and go to File > Mount Virtual Disks.

Striking Mount Disk, the pop-up window is opened later that. Click Browse and select the virtual disk VMDK file.

Let'due south select the VMDK file of the 2d differential virtual deejay created after taking the second VM snapshot. The proper noun of this file appears as VM_name-000002.vmdk in such cases (WinXP-test-000002.vmdk is used in this example).

Create the directory on your Linux file organisation for mounting a virtual disk of the VMDK format to that directory. Let'southward create the /mnt/vmdk/ directory in the Linux console.

mkdir /mnt/vmdk/

Set permissions for your user (the user proper noun is user1 and it is a member of group1 in the current example):

chown -R user1:group1 /mnt/vmdk/

chmod -R 0775 /mnt/vmdk/

At present, select the directory you have created equally the target directory, check the "Mount in read-only mode" checkbox and click Mount.

At present you are able open the /mnt/vmdk/ directory in your Linux file explorer and browse files and directories located on the VMDK virtual disk. You lot can meet Snapshot1.txt and Snapshot2.txt files which were created subsequently creating the first and 2nd snapshots in this example. Each of these two files is located on the separate delta VMDK virtual deejay.

Don't forget to unmount the VMDK virtual disk from the directory (mountain point) on your host Linux system after finishing operations with the virtual disk content.

Mounting VMDK on the Linux host in panel

If you prefer using the console interface, you can mount VMDK disk images with this command:

vmware-mountain /media/user1/vms/vm_name/vm_disk_name-000002.vmdk /mnt/vmdk

Where:

vm_name is the proper noun of the virtual machine that is the same as the VM directory name in this instance. WinXP-test is the VM name in our instance.

vm_disk_name is the name of the virtual deejay (WinXP-examination.vmdk is used in this example)

vm_disk_name-000001.vmdk is the proper noun of the commencement delta (differencing) deejay created later taking the first VM snapshot (WinXP-examination-000001.vmdk in this case)

vm_disk_name-000002.vmdk is the proper name of the 2nd delta deejay created after taking the second VM snapshot accordingly (WinXP-test-000002.vmdk in this case)

Mountain a virtual deejay. By default, the virtual disk is mounted in the read/write fashion. You tin can utilise the -r key in the command line to mount a disk in read-but mode.

vmware-mount /media/user1/vms/vm_name/vm_disk_name-000002.vmdk /mnt/vmdk

List all mounted VMDK virtual disks:

vmware-mount -L

Before finishing working with mounted VMDK virtual disks, unmount all virtual disks:

vmware-mountain -x

Instance 2: How to mountain VMDK on the Windows host

The idea of how to mount VMDK files in Windows is similar. In addition to the File > Map Virtual Disks selection in the graphical user interface (GUI) of VMware Workstation, you can just right click the VMDK file in Windows Explorer and in the context menu, hit the Map Virtual Deejay pick. Let'due south mount the VMDK file of the offset differential virtual deejay created afterwards taking the get-go VM snapshot. The name of this VMDK file has the following format: VM_name-000001.vmdk (WinXP-test-000001.vmdk is opened in this tutorial).

It is recommended that y'all open up the VMDK file in read-only mode to prevent whatever possible damage of virtual disks that belong to the snapshot chain after writing data. The default drive letter is Z: in this example and the bulldoze is opened in Windows Explorer automatically later mapping if the advisable checkbox is ticked. Hit OK to proceed.

Now the virtual disk is mounted as disk Z: in Windows. On the screenshot below, y'all can see the Snapshot1.txt file created after taking the first snapshot. The Snapshot2.txt file is missing considering it was created after taking the 2nd VM snapshot, and we accept opened a delta virtual deejay related to the offset VM snapshot.

When you accept finished working with the mapped VMDK virtual disk, don't forget to disconnect the disk. Right click the advisable VMDK file and hit Disconnect Virtual Disk. Afterwards disconnecting the virtual disk, you can power on a VM that uses this virtual disk.

Using 7-nada to extract content from VMDK files

If you are looking for how to open up VMDK files without running virtual machines, yous can install 7-zip and extract content from virtual deejay images. vii-zip is a free tool intended to archive files and unpack files from athenaeum and other images. This tool tin can be used on Linux and Windows machines.

seven-nada can open vmdk and -apartment.vmdk files (this utility can open up a single -flat.vmdk file if the descriptor vmdk file is missing) – it is actually for virtual disks of the ESXi format. 7-zip cannot open delta VMDK files created after taking VM snapshots.

How to open VMDK files with 7-nothing on Linux

Install a full pack of seven-null on your Linux machine. Ubuntu is used in this example.

apt-get install p7zip-full

List contents of the vmdk file with 7zip

7z l vm_name.vmdk

Let's find the files that contain "kick." in their names, for instance.

7z l /media/user1/vms/WinXP-test/WinXP-exam.vmdk | grep kick[.]

Where user1 is the name of our Linux user, l – list.

Let's extract (due east) the kicking.ini file from the VMDK epitome:

7z due east /media/user1/vms/WinXP-test/WinXP-exam.vmdk boot.ini

Extract other files and directories from the VMDK file similarly.

How to open VMDK files with 7-zip on Windows

Download the compatible version of 7-cipher from the official web site and install the application on your Windows machine. Use the EXE installer for more convenience. After installing 7-zip on Windows, new 7-nil options are added to the context bill of fare when y'all right click any file or binder in Windows Explorer (come across the screenshot). Employ these options to open a VMDK file equally an annal or extract files correct now.

On the screenshot below, the content of the standalone Win-test2-flat.vmdk file is displayed in the GUI of vii-nada used in Windows.

Other Methods to Open VMDK Files in Linux

Ane of the most powerful capabilities of Linux is the ability to perform the highest number of operations in the console even with built-in tools. These tools will help you to mount VMDK files and access the content stored on virtual disks. Ubuntu Linux is used in the provided examples.

How to mount VMDK files past using /dev/loop

Loop devices are pseudo-devices in Linux that make files accessible as block devices and can exist used to mount disk images that contain file systems. Loop devices are named as /dev/loopX where X is the number of the loop device. This method is good to mount -flat.vmdk files even without a virtual disk descriptor.

Let's explore how to mount a VMDK file in Linux to access the files of the virtual deejay as an example. In that location is a virtual disk of the ESXi format that contains one partitioning; a descriptor file is missing. A long fourth dimension agone, Windows XP was installed on that virtual disk.

1. Use one of the two commands to check the number of existing loop devices on your Linux system.

fdisk -l | grep /dev/loop

df -h | grep /dev/loop

2. In our case, devices with numbers i to 21 already exist (/dev/loop1 - /dev/loop21). Thus, allow's create the loop device number 30 – this number is free. We volition associate this device with the -flat.vmdk file.

losetup /dev/loop30 /vms/Win-test2-apartment.vmdk

3. Set up the starting time:

losetup -o 32256 /dev/loop31 /dev/loop30

Where 32256 is the kickoff that is 63*512 for a disk formatted in Windows XP/Server 2003 and older Windows versions (63 is the number of the first sector of the partition and 512 bytes is the sector size). For Windows 7/Server 2008 and newer Windows versions, try the offset 105906176.

Yous tin recall information nearly the sector size, and the kickoff sector used for the boot showtime with the command:

fdisk -l /dev/loop30 /vms/Win-test2-flat.vmdk

As an alternative, for virtual disks that contains multiple partitions, y'all can utilise parted to determine the start and the stop of each partition:

parted /dev/loop30

In the parted panel, enter the following commands.

unit

B

print

4. Create a directory to exist used every bit the mount signal for the VMDK image:

mkdir /mnt/vmdk-image

5. Mount the loopback device associated with the VMDK image to the created directory:

mount /dev/loop31 /mnt/vmdk-prototype

6. List the content of the mounted image:

ls -al /mnt/vmdk-image

7. After finishing working with the content of the virtual deejay, unmount the image and disconnect the loop device.

umount /mnt/vmdk-image

losetup -d /dev/loop31

How to mountain VMDK files with kpartx

Kpartx is a tool that can mount partitions inside prototype files to the directories of your real Linux file system. This tool tin can be used to gear up device mappings for partitions of block devices. This method is also nice for mounting -apartment.vmdk images used on ESXi servers. Permit'due south run into how to mountain the -flat.vmdk file used in the previous example.

1. Install kpartx:

apt-get install kpartx

2. Add the sectionalization mapping for the VMDK image in the verbose operating mode:

kpartx -av /vms/Win-test2-flat.vmdk

3. Mount a partition to the /mnt/vmdk-paradigm directory prepared before:

mount /dev/mapper/loop30p1 /mnt/vmdk-image/

Where loop30 is the number of the loop device and p1 is the number of the partition inside the image (the kickoff division on the disk prototype).

4. List the content of the virtual disk division you have mounted:

ls -al /mnt/vmdk-paradigm/

5. When you lot have finished operations with files of the VMDK epitome, unmount the VMDK virtual deejay image.

umount /mnt/vmdk-image

kpartx -d /vms/Win-test2-flat.vmdk

Conclusion

Today'southward blog post has covered dissimilar methods of getting data from VMDK files which are usually used as virtual disks. VMDK files can be opened with or without powering on a VM, and tin as well be mounted in Linux and Windows equally virtual deejay images. Hopefully, this information volition help you find a suitable method for resolving your tasks.

Understanding how to open vmdk files and excerpt content from VMDK files is important if something goes wrong with a virtual machine. Knowing multiple methods of extracting VMDK content gives you lot the power of option because the different methods can each be the all-time selection in certain situations. Moreover, information technology is even ameliorate to accept backups of your VMs in addition to that knowledge.

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