This article guides you through the process of locating the files that comprise a virtual machine on a Windows or Linux host. These files include configuration files, log files, and virtual disk files.
For more information about this process on a Macintosh host, see Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion (1007599).
For reference, virtual machine log files are named vmware.log
, configuration files have a .vmx
extension, and virtual disk files have a .vmdk
extension.
Determining the location of a virtual machine's files may differ between Windows and Linux hosts, depending on the VMware product being used and its version. Refer to the section that matches your product version and host operating system.
Note: For these procedures, results may not be possible unless you are logged in as a user with either Administrator rights, root access, or the user who created the virtual machine.
For the location of the log and configuration files:
File locations
you will see Configuration
and Log
. You can find the files in those directories.For the location of the virtual disk files, look in the directory where the configuration (.vmx
) file is located. If there are no .vmdk
files there, or you suspect that there are not enough .vmdk
files to account for the number of virtual disks for this virtual machine, edit the .vmx
file in a text editor. Search the file for all lines of text ending in .vmdk
. Any virtual disk files that are not located in this directory have their full path listed on this line of text.
The default location for virtual machine files is the folder My Virtual Machines
in the My Documents
folder of the home directory of the user who created the virtual machines. If you are logged in as this user, you can:
%userprofile%
. If you are still unable to locate the virtual machine files, you must search the host hard drive for virtual machine configuration files.
To search the host hard drive:
C:\>dir \*.vmx /s/p
This returns directory paths to all virtual machine configuration files. Based on the name of the virtual machine whose files you are looking for, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the location of the directory containing its .vmx
file.
For the location of the virtual disk files, look in the directory where the configuration file (.vmx
) is located. If there are no .vmdk
files there or you suspect that there are not enough .vmdk
files to account for the number of virtual disks for this virtual machine, edit the configuration file in a text editor. Search this file for all lines of text ending in .vmdk
. Any virtual disk files that are not located in the current directory have their full path listed on this line of text.
To determine the default location of virtual machine files for the product in use:
/home/username/vmware
, where username
is the user who created the virtual machine. /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines
. If you are still unable to locate the virtual machine files, you must search the host hard drive for virtual machine configuration files.
To search the host hard drive:
find / -name "*.vmx"
.vmx
) is located. If there are no .vmdk
files there or you suspect that there are not enough .vmdk
files to account for the number of virtual disks for this virtual machine, edit the configuration file in a text editor. Search this file for all lines of text ending in .vmdk
. Any virtual disks whose files are not located in the current directory have their full path listed on this line of text.