VDI export to VMDK results in a corrupted disk

abudef

Hi,
I want to ask if anyone has encountered this issue. If I use XO to download VDI directly in VMDK format, the content is corrupted. VMware Workstation does not see the NTFS partition on the disk; instead it shows it as a RAW partition and the disk is unreadable.

I tried downloading the same VDI as VHD and then converting it to VMDK using qemu-img, and this disk worked in VMware WS without any problems.

Could there be an issue somewhere in the export process when exporting directly to VMDK?

XO 99312 and 280c0 tested.

Danp

@abudef What steps are you performing to export the VDI as a VMDK?

abudef

Danp

Ah... ok. I think I originally checked the VM export.

This could be a bug. Does it occur with all VDIs? What happens if you try to import the file back into XO?

abudef

I tried to export 3 VDIs from 2 different XCP-ng pools. 2 VDIs from Windows Server 2025 VMs and 1 from Windows Server 2022 VM. All 3 VMDKs seem to be corrupted when I try to use them in VMware Workstation.

I also tried reimporting 1 of the exported VMDKs back into the XCP-ng repository and the VM booted without any issue using the reimported VDI.

Maybe there is either an issue with this VMDK format in VMware Workstation or the XO´s export/import method creates VMDK files that can be exported and reimport back into XCP-ng repository while preserving the original state of the VDI in the XCP-ng repository even if it´s unusable in VMware WS.

abudef

Danp

Have you attempted to analyze the exported file using qemu-img?
For example:

qemu-img info file.vmdk
qemu-img check file.vmdk

abudef

qemu-img.exe info Windows Server 2025.vmdk
image: Windows Server 2025.vmdk
file format: vmdk
virtual size: 64G (68719476736 bytes)
disk size: 64G
cluster_size: 65536
Format specific information:
    cid: 2849992906
    parent cid: 4294967295
    create type: streamOptimized
    extents:
        [0]:
            compressed: true
            virtual size: 68719476736
            filename: Windows Server 2025.vmdk
            cluster size: 65536
            format:

qemu-img.exe check Windows Server 2025.vmdk
No errors were found on the image.

It seems that the disk itself is formally OK, but the content is somehow corrupted.

Danp

It's possible that the issue lies within VMware Workstation.