Move a Virtual Machine to a New Location or New Host

You can move a virtual machine that is created in Workstation Player to a different host system or to a different location on the same host system. You can move a virtual machine to a host system that has a different operating system.

Moving a virtual machine typically involves moving the files that make up the virtual machine. The pathnames for all files associated with a Workstation Player virtual machine are relative to the virtual machine directory.

When you move a virtual machine, Workstation Player generates a new MAC address for the virtual network adapter. Workstation Player also generates a new MAC address when you rename a directory in the path to the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.

Prerequisites

• Familiarize yourself with how Workstation Player generates UUIDs for moved virtual machines. See Using the Virtual Machine UUID.
• If you are moving the virtual machine to a different host system, familiarize yourself with the limitations of moving a virtual machine to a new host. See Limitations of Moving a Virtual Machine to a Different Host.
• If you configured the working directory to reside in a different location on the host system, move files from the working directory into the virtual machine directory and change the working directory to this location.
• Verify that virtual machine devices and any associated files point to locations that you can access from the new location.
• Verify that all virtual machine files are stored in the virtual machine directory. Some files might reside outside of the virtual machine directory.

Procedure

1. Shut down the guest operating system and power off the virtual machine.
2. Copy the virtual machine files to the new location.
3. Verify that you copied all of the virtual machine files to the new location.
4. Open the virtual machine in Workstation Player

   Option	Description
   If you moved the virtual machine to a different location on the same host system	Remove the virtual machine from the library, select File > Open a Virtual Machine, and browse to the .vmx file in its new location.
   If you moved the virtual machine to a different host system	Start Workstation Player on the new host system, select File > Open a Virtual Machine, and browse to the .vmx file.

5. When you are certain that the virtual machine in the new location works correctly, delete the virtual machine files from the original location.