Mounting VMDK disk image

Question

I have a single vmware disk image file with vmdk extension

I am trying to mount this and explore all of the partitions (including hidden ones).

I've tried to follow several guides, such as : http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/469942-mounting-virtual-box-machine-images-host

I'm able to mount the image using vdfuse

vdfuse -w -f windows.vmdk /mnt/

After this I can see one partition and an entire disk exposed

# ll /mnt/
total 41942016
-r-------- 1 te users 21474836480 Feb 28 14:16 EntireDisk
-r-------- 1 te users  1569718272 Feb 28 14:16 Partition1

Continuing with the guide I try to mount either EntireDisk or Partition1 using

mount -o loop,ro /mnt/Partition1 mnt2/

But that gives me the error 'mount: you must specify a filesystem type'

In trying to find the correct type I tried

dd if=/mnt/EntireDisk | file -
which outputs a ton of information but of note is:
/dev/stdin: x86 boot sector; partition 1: ....... FATs ....

So i tired to mount as a vfat but that gave me

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock ...etc

What am I doing wrong?

Did you try ntfs? Did you try `fdisk /mnt/EntireDisk` or `gparted /mnt/EntireDisk` and looking at the partitions there? Do they show up correctly? — voidlogic, Mar 11 '14 at 15:24
fdisk returned: 'WARNING: GPT detected on '...'. The util fdisk doesnt support GPT'. gparted is able to show me there are 4 partitions but all fail to initalize. It lists several required packages for ntfs and fat32 that i might need so I'll install those and see if it gets me anything — Without Me It Just Aweso, Mar 12 '14 at 12:45
Also, you might want to move this question over to http://serverfault.com/, I bet you would get more help there as this isn't really a software dev or computer science question. — voidlogic, Mar 12 '14 at 14:25
I saw a lot of solution, but finally I use the simple solution: add the VMDK file to an existed linux VM. Boot to that VM and mount the partition normally. You can use GUI tool to mount (such as gnome-disks in gnome) or `mount` command line — binhgreat, Sep 05 '22 at 11:24

score 77 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 12 '20 at 10:48

77

For newer Linux systems, you can use guestmount to mount the third partition within a VMDK image:

guestmount -a xyz.vmdk -m /dev/sda3 --ro /mnt/vmdk

Alternatively, to autodetect and mount an image (less reliable), you can try:

guestmount -a xyz.vmdk -i --ro /mnt/vmdk

Do note that the flag --ro simply mounts the image as read-only; to mount the image as read-write, just replace it with the flag --rw.

Installation

guestmount is contained in following packages per distro:

Ubuntu: libguestfs-tools
OpenSuse: guestfs-tools
CentOS / Fedora: libguestfs-tools-c

Troubleshooting

`error: could not create appliance through libvirt`

$ guestmount -a file.vmdk -i --ro /mnt/guest
libguestfs: error: could not create appliance through libvirt.

Try running qemu directly without libvirt using this environment variable:
export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct

Original error from libvirt: Cannot access backing file '/path/to/file.vmdk' of storage file '/tmp/libguestfssF6WKX/overlay1.qcow2' (as uid:107, gid:107): Permission denied [code=38 int1=13]

Solution: use LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct, as suggested:

LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct guestmount -a file.vmdk -i --ro /mnt/guest

`fusermount: user has no write access to mountpoint`

LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct guestmount -a file.vmdk -i --ro /mnt/guest/
fusermount: user has no write access to mountpoint /mnt/guest
libguestfs: error: fuse_mount failed: /mnt/guest/, see error messages above

Solution: use sudo, or change file permissions on the mountpoint

edited Feb 12 '20 at 10:48

supervacuo

9,072
2
44
61

answered May 12 '15 at 20:49

Thomas

1,622
17
24

1

That's very helpful. Anyway, I had to use `sudo` and get to the directory as `root` to made this work. – realhu Nov 20 '17 at 17:03
1

This worked for me, although the `-m` argument needs a little more explanation. From the [`guestmount` man page](https://linux.die.net/man/1/guestmount): `Mount the named partition or logical volume on the given mountpoint in the guest (this has nothing to do with mountpoints in the host).`. I found that mounting the first partition with `/dev/sda1` worked, even though the host had it's own `/dev/sda1` – Kryten Jun 21 '20 at 20:17
For debian and proxmox systems it is also the package libguestfs-tools – sneaky Sep 09 '20 at 14:20
I don't understand the `-m` option, but `-i` worked fine. Why is `-m /dev/xxx` needed? – guettli Jan 11 '21 at 12:40
`sudo guestmount -a abc.vmdk -o "ro" -i --ro /mnt/abc` it only mounts readonly if i use `-o ro` – Aquarius Power Jun 01 '22 at 11:44
The `-m` option is the partition on the vmdk. You can find this with `virt-filesystems -a {path_to_vmdk_file}`. – mitchellJ Jan 18 '23 at 20:17

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 04 '19 at 14:37

23

You can also use qemu:

For `.vdi` disks

sudo modprobe nbd
sudo qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd1 ./linux_box/VM/image.vdi

if they are not installed, you can install them (issuing this command in Ubuntu)

sudo apt install qemu-utils

and then mount it with:

mount /dev/nbd1p1 /mnt

For `.vmdk` disks

sudo modprobe nbd
sudo qemu-nbd -r -c /dev/nbd1 ./linux_box/VM/image.vmdk

notice that I use the option -r, that's because VMDK version 3 must be read only to be able to be mounted by qemu

and then I mount it with

mount /dev/nbd1p1 /mnt

I use nbd1, because nbd0 sometimes gives: 'mount: special device /dev/nbd0p1 does not exist'

For `.ova` disks

tar -tf image.ova
tar -xvf image.ova

The above will extract the .vmdk disk and then mount it.

edited Jul 04 '19 at 14:37

user3694243

234
3
13

answered Feb 27 '18 at 02:55

Eduard Florinescu

16,747
28
113
179

1

Additional info about mounting archives and virtual drives: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/31669/is-it-possible-to-mount-a-gzip-compressed-dd-image-on-the-fly – user1742529 Dec 25 '19 at 15:25
`qemu-nbd: Failed to blk_new_open 'abc.vmdk': Could not open 'abc-s1016.vmdk': Too many open files` it has a total of 1025 files btw, I guess I would have to recompile nbd to let more than 1017 files? the vmdk is split in growing files for a 2TB max size – Aquarius Power Jun 01 '22 at 11:57

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 27 '21 at 01:56

7

Install affuse, then mount using it.

affuse /path/file.vmdk /mnt/vmdk

The raw disk image is now found under /mnt/vmdk. Check its sector size:

fdisk -l /mnt/vmdk/file.vmdk.raw

# example

Disk file.vmdk.raw: 20 GiB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000da525

Device       Boot Start      End  Sectors Size Id Type
/mnt/vmdk/file.vmdk.raw1 *     2048 41943039 41940992  20G 83 Linux

Multiply sector size and start sector. In the example it would be 2048*512:

echo '2048*512' | bc
1048576

Mount the raw file using that offset:

mount -o ro,loop,offset=1048576 /mnt/vmdk/file.raw /mnt/vmdisk

The disk should now be mounted and readable on /mnt/vmdisk.

edited Apr 27 '21 at 01:56

Axel Beckert

6,814
1
22
23

answered Sep 06 '16 at 13:25

MetalGodwin

3,784
2
17
14

1

No need in manual calculation: just use `offset=$((2048*512))` – Ruslan Feb 17 '20 at 08:56
1

If you have the error: mount: /mnt/vmdisk: cannot mount /dev/loop0 read-only. use the norecovery option: mount -o ro,norecovery,loop,offset=1048576 /mnt/vmdk/file.raw /mnt/vmdisk – Ponytech Mar 05 '20 at 18:35
`mount: /mnt/vmdkraw: failed to setup loop device for /mnt/vmdk/MSEdge - Win10-disk001.vmdk.raw` Its HPFS/NTFS/exFAT, but don't suppose that makes a difference. – caduceus May 27 '20 at 07:42
used this however the mounted folder was empty – Avizipi Feb 15 '22 at 13:38
ls:`-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1536 Dec 31 1969 abc.vmdk.raw` fdisk:`cannot open abc.vmdk.raw: Permission denied`, any idea? – Aquarius Power Jun 01 '22 at 12:06

Illia Bobyr · Answer 4 · 2021-04-30T21:53:26.950

3

Here is an answer from commandlinefu.com that worked for me:

kpartx -av <image-flat.vmdk>; mount -o /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt/vmdk

You can also activate LVM volumes in the image by running

vgchange -a y

and then you can mount the LV inside the image.

To unmount the image, umount the partition/LV, deactivate the VG for the image

vgchange -a n <volume_group>

then run

kpartx -dv <image-flad.vmdk>

to remove the partition mappings.

edited Apr 30 '21 at 21:53

answered Nov 11 '15 at 20:36

Illia Bobyr

730
6
16

@AntonioPetricca If you say something does not work, you may also provide details on what exactly did not work. Like posting an error message or explaining what exactly is wrong. That would greatly increase value of the comment. – Illia Bobyr Jun 24 '17 at 00:59
Sorry! KPARTX says that the VMDK file format is not recognized. – Antonio Petricca Jun 24 '17 at 15:50
This is for ESX's "someimage-flat.vmdk" format, where it works as described. – Adrian Zaugg Jul 16 '18 at 23:42
`sudo kpartx -av abc.vmdk` gives `llseek error` on ubuntu22.04 – Aquarius Power Jun 01 '22 at 12:10

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

2

You can take a look in this article for a download link for VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK). Once downloaded and installed:

vmware-mount -p path_to_vmdk will show the partitions inside the VMDK file. For example:

Nr      Start       Size Type Id Sytem                   
-- ---------- ---------- ---- -- ------------------------
 1       2048  461371392 BIOS 83 Linux

Then just do:

sudo vmware-mount path_to_vmdk 1 /mnt/mount_point

I tried guestmount, but it is very, very slow. Underneath it creates a virtual machine, uses KVM and so on. Crazy stuff, slow as hell.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Mar 20 '20 at 14:43

georgiptr

111
9

Excellent recommendation. IMHO, many people downvoted without giving any rationale. Whereas this is a very high speed method to mount and use vmdk. I copied out 204,803 files in under 9 minutes (even faster than local filesystem copy). @georgiptr You don't need the whole VDDK if you already have vmware player or workstation (and possibly any other vmware product) because vmware-mount is already installed. – LMSingh Jul 26 '21 at 08:34

score -3 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 14 '16 at 09:30

-3

Have you got the software package for ntfs?

Try

apt-get install ntfs-3g

on debian based systems.

edited Sep 14 '16 at 09:30

sjas

18,644
14
87
92

answered Mar 11 '14 at 15:17

Jiang

590
2
10

1

What does the OP's problem have to do with NFS? Did you mean ntfs? An NTFS package would be something like `ntfs-3g`. – voidlogic Mar 11 '14 at 15:25
@voidlogic Sorry I've understood your question wrong and SO keeps giving me a prompt of `read-only mode`. Have you try to mount the vmdk file by `vmware-mount`, which can be extracted from the VMware-Workstation. – Jiang Mar 11 '14 at 16:06

Mounting VMDK disk image

6 Answers6

Installation

Troubleshooting

error: could not create appliance through libvirt

fusermount: user has no write access to mountpoint

For .vdi disks

For .vmdk disks

For .ova disks

`error: could not create appliance through libvirt`

`fusermount: user has no write access to mountpoint`

For `.vdi` disks

For `.vmdk` disks

For `.ova` disks