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Using the VMware Management Interface, you can manage the file system of your VMware ESX Server machine remotely. Use the file manager to change the permissions of any file on the physical machine, create new directories on the physical machine or cut, copy, paste and delete files as you would if you were working directly on the file system itself. To use the file manager, click Manage Files on the Status Monitor or Options page of the management interface.

In the left pane of the file manager, click a folder to display its contents.

Note: The tree view may fail to load or may only partially load when viewed with Mozilla. To restore the proper view, right-click in the left pane, then choose Reload Frame or Refresh from the context menu.

Some file and folder icons have special meanings.

To perform an action on a file or folder (directory), click the check box beside its listing, then click the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen to delete, edit properties, cut or copy.

After you have cut or copied a file or folder, you may then paste it into the same or a different folder. If you copy a file or folder, then paste it into the same folder, the new file or folder is renamed, with copy_of_ before the original name. You may then select it and use Edit Properties to give it a name of your choice.

When you start a long-running operation — for example, pasting a file larger than 10MB after a copy or moving it between logical file systems — a progress bar appears so you can track the progress of the operation.

When you copy and paste or cut and paste a virtual disk file from the VMFS file system to the service console's file system, or vice versa, the file manager uses vmkfstools to import or export the file, translating the format appropriately. Among other things, this means a virtual disk larger than 2GB will be split into multiple files when it is moved from a VMFS disk or array to the service console's file system.

Note: The file manager in the management interface may display incorrect information or no information at all for files larger than 2GB. This means that you cannot use the file manager to import certain virtual disk files created under VMware Workstation 4. For background on vmkfstools, see Using vmkfstools.

After selecting a file or folder and clicking Edit Properties, you can change its name and permissions. When you are finished, click OK to apply the changes.

If you select more than one file or folder, you can change permissions for all the files at once. Any changes you make, using the drop-down lists in the file manager, apply to all the files you have selected.

• A letter, corresponding to the letter at the top of the column (read, write or execute), indicates that the setting is the same for all files and it does grant the permission indicated by the letter.
• A hyphen (-) indicates that the setting is the same for all files and it does not grant permission.
• A blank space indicates that the setting is not the same for all files.

  

Use the top pane of the file manager to navigate the directory structure and create new directories.

To create a new directory, click New, enter the name for the directory, then click OK.