Export Writable Volumes from vSAN Datastore

In certain scenarios such as uploading the Writable Volumes *.vmdk to VMware support team to analyze issues due to Writable Volumes or you simply want to export the WV from one vSAN datastore to another vCenter or vSAN Datastore

Following is the step by step procedure to export Writable Volumes from vsanDatastore for troubleshooting purposes:

Source vCenter or vSAN Datastore:

• Create a dummy VM (No need to power on the VM)
• Add a HDD to the dummy VM – Use existing disk option – Locate the Writable Volumes under –  /vmfs/volumes/vsandatastore/cloudvolumes/writables) and click OK
• Now you can export the dummy VM as a OVA or OVF to another vCenter or vSAN datastore
• Save the OVA to a File Share or GSS FPT for further troubleshooting

Target vCenter or vSAN Datastore

• Import the OVA into the target vCenter
• SSH to a host in the cluster from which the Writable Volumes (WV vmdk) needs to be copied to the correct path cd /vmfs/volumes/vsandatastore/cloudvolumes/writables
• Copy the files *.vmdk from dummy VM Folder to the writable folder
  • cp /vmfs/volumes/DummyVM/AV-WV/domainname!5C.aresh.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/vsandatastore/cloudvolumes/writable
• Go to App Volumes Manager – Writable Volumes – Import Writable Volumes
• Now you should see the writable for that user

Following are the step the engineer needs to perform for further troubleshooting it can be GSS, R&D or L3.

• Import the template into the environment
• Click on convert to virtual machine
• On any existing Windows 7 VM without AV Agent (make sure not AV agent is installed). One needs to have a Windows 7 VM pre-build
• Add HDD and select the existing disk option. Search for the vmdk in the folder previously imported
• Assign the volume a driver letter and you can browse the contents of the WV
• Troubleshoot further!

I hope this post will save you a lot of time when exporting WV from VSAN Datastore

Thanks,
Aresh