Resizing disks in VMware Workstation

If you want to increase the size of a virtual machine (VM) in VMware Workstation, you can use the command line tool, vmware-vdiskmanager, from a command prompt. The command can be executed from the VMware Workstation folder under Program Files\VMware. The VM should be powered off.

The following command will increase the size of the virtual disk to 30 GB. In this case, the .vmdk file resides on a network share.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmware-vdiskmanager -x 30GB "\\FILESERVER\folder-X\My Virtual Machines\testserver\testserver.vmdk"

This will work both on a disk where all space has been allocated and disk that are allowed to grow.

VLAN trunking / grouping in distributed virtual switch

In vSphere, there's a new networking feature which can be configured on the distributed virtual switch (or DVS). In VI3 it is only possible to add one VLAN to a specific port group in the vSwitch. in the DVS, you can add a range of VLANs to a single port group. The feature is called VLAN trunking and it can be configured when you add a new port group. There you have the option to define a VLAN type, which can be one of the following: None, VLAN, VLAN trunking, and Private VLAN. But this can only be done on the DVS, not on a regular vSwitch. See screendumps below (both from vSphere environment)

vCenter Converter Standalone 4 - ports used

We're doing quite a few P2V conversions at the moment, and that means that we see all kinds of weird errors, conversion failures, and connection issues. P2V is definitely not an exact science.

One thing that is recommended to have in order is that proper network ports are opened.

VMware has written a good KB article that explains which ports are used.

If you have server with Converter Standalone installed on it, and you have trouble connecting to the source physical computer, then first make sure that Windows Firewall is disabled. If that doesn't work, then install the Converter application directly on the source computer. Then you will need outbound 443 TCP connection to vCenter (former Virtual Center) (it's assumed that port 443 TCP is open inbound on the vCenter server, of course).

To test if ports are open, open a CMD prompt and run following command:

telnet 'vCenter ip' 443

(without the ' ') If the DOS prompt goes black, then the connection is good. Othervise you will get a 'can't connect' or something similar)

If you P2V directly to an ESX server, then ports 902, 903, and 443 TCP are used.

If you, for some reason, can't get port 443 opened, then a workaround is as follows:

• Install the Converter directly on the source system
• If you have an existing test VM in the same IP range, then create a new disk and attach that to the test VM.
• Make a Windows share on the new disk
• From the Converter choose to export to standalone virtual machine in Workstation format and then coose to place files on the share just created
• After export, change the VLAN to an IP range that doesn't have any firewalls blocking
• Import the VM from within vCenter

How to Back Up the Registry & Restore the Registry

Back Up the Registry

Before you edit the registry, export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps how-to restore the registry to its previous state.

How to Export Registry Keys
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Export.
In the Save in box, select the boxs at the bottom the bottom according to weather you want to export all or only selected branches of the registry.
Next select a location in which to save the backup .reg file. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

Restore the Registry

To restore registry keys that you exported, double-click the .reg file that you saved.