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Browse Datastores Option of the VI Client Cannot Recognize .vmdk File Created by vmkfstools

Details

I created a virtual disk with the vmkfstools -c command. Now I'm trying to add this disk to my virtual machine using the VI Client's Add Hardware wizard. I can't see the disk in the datastore directory. What's wrong?

Solution

When you create a virtual disk with vmkfstools, you use root permissions. This makes the .vmdk file unreadable to an ESX Server host user or any other non-root user who attempts to access the file by browsing datastores in the VI Client.

You can change the virtual disk permissions to let the ESX Server host user (vimuser) view the disk through the Browse Datastores option of the VI Client.

To do so, enter the following commands:
chown vimuser:vimuser *.vmdk
chmod 700 *.vmdk

Keywords

2171; Virtual; Infrastructure; delegate; host; agent

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KB Article: 2171
Updated: Aug 14, 2009

Products:
VMware ESX
VMware VirtualCenter
Product Versions:
VMware ESX 3.0.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x

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