Importing & exporting from one VMware ESX to another VMware ESX may involve slightly different vmdk file format, security setting and do not share any VMFS. The best tools is using vmkfstools command. vmkstools is VMware ESX Server file system management tool. It is a program for creating and manipulating virtual disks, file systems, logical volumes and pyhsical storage device on the VMware ESX Server.
The example below based on VMware ESX 3.x.x: Exporting a virtual disk from VMware ESX Server 1:
vmkfstools -e /vmfolder/exportvmdiskkfilename.vmdk /vmfs/vmdiskfile.vmdk
Copy vmdk file from ESX Server 1 to ESX Server 2:
scp /vmfs/vmdiskfile.vmdk root@esx2:/vmfolder/vmdiskfile.vmdk
Importing a virtual disk inside VMware ESX Server 2:
vmkfstools -i /vmfolder/vmdiskfile.vmdk /vmfs/vmserver1.vmdk
Warning:
The destination path /vmfs/vmserver1.vmdk shold not contain any existing files with the name “vmserver1.vmdk”. If it does the file will be overwritten. Once the VMDK file copying over to ESX Server 2, you can register virtual machine using: vmware-cmd -s register . Additional information regarding the vmkfstools & vmware-cmd command can be found in the ESX Server documentation or type man vmkfstools & man vmware-cmd.