Whether you’re troubleshooting a VM, moving a disk to another host, or just creating an emergency backup of a single virtual disk, downloading a .vmdk file directly from a VMware datastore is a common task.
| Problem | Likely Fix | |--------|-------------| | Download button grayed out | VM is running or the file is locked. Power off VM or remove disk from VM first. | | Download fails mid-way | Use SCP (Method 2) instead of browser. | | I see only vmname.vmdk (small file) | That’s the descriptor. The actual data is in -flat.vmdk . Download both. | | Can’t find -flat.vmdk | Thick-provisioned eager zeroed disks may hide it. Use ls -la via SSH. | | Permission denied | Ensure you are logging in as root or a user with “Datastore consumer” role. |
: VMware recommends removing or consolidating all existing snapshots before downloading to ensure you get the most current and complete state of the disk.
✅ This method is and supports resume on large files.
ovftool vi://your_username:your_password@your_vcenter_server/vmfs/volumes/your_datastore/your_vm_name your_local_vm_path
