Can I plug an old HDD (EXT4 partitions) in a new EXSi server and load all the existing virtual machines from there?
Is this is even possible? (mount my old EXT4 partition inside ESXi 6.5 and load virtual machines from there). Or is it really necesary to format my old HDD in a VMFS file system?
I'm totally new to ESXi, My company used to virtualize in VMWare Workstation for Linux, but today they asked me to migrate our VMs to a new ESXi server.
Best Answer
In answer to your question, as described: no, you cannot plug a EXT4 formatted hard drive into ESXi and expect it to work. This is because ESXi can only read VMFS formatted hard drives.
You should accomplish your goal by inserting the hard drive into an existing Windows server, (or even a workstation or laptop for that matter), downloading and running vCenter Converter, and converting/transferring all your VMs to the ESXi server.