How to Access VMware Guest File System on Ubuntu (non-host)

Last updated: April 23, 2024

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This tutorial shows you how to mount / access VMware Virutal Machine File System (vmfs) on Ubuntu (non host).

VMFS is a clustered filesystem designed to store virtual machine disks for VMware ESX or ESXi Server hosts. There is a command line tool for Linux that allows to access VMFS filesystems from some other non ESX/ESXi host for e.g. maintenance tasks.

First install this tool by searching and installing the package from Ubuntu Software Center. Or run the command below:

sudo apt-get install vmfs-tools

Find you vmfs partition by running this command:

sudo fdisk -l

Then mount vmfs with this tool. For example, /dev/sdb3 is the vmfs that we want to mount. We’re going to mount it to /mnt directory. Run this command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb3 /mnt/

After that, open your system file manager, and go to the new mounted folder and enjoy!

Enjoy!

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via [email protected] Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1