How to export a Lab Manager machine to ESX?

Question

I'm wondering if I can export my Lab Manager templates directly into a cheaper ESX host. Easy enough to import from other ESX hosts. I imagine validating machines in LM and then moving the nicely configured templates off to a plain ESX host. That would save Lab Manager resources for things that really need to be there.

Possible? Seems like it ought to be - Lab Manager just runs on ESX. Anyone tried it? How?

Using LM 3, ESX 3.5. (I'm also digging around LM forums, will let you know what we find out)

Answer 1

Lab Manager templates and VM instances from within Lab Manager (as long they're not currently running) can be exported as a series of 2GB (or less) vmdk files. Those files can then be used by any VMware product (ESX, VMware Workstation, Fusion, etc). Depending on the size of the template/VM, it can take an hour or more to export to a network share so don't freak out if you see it spinning for a bit.

Answer 2

If you go to the templates page of LM, you can mouse over the template you want to export to bring up a menu. Choose export, point it to an SMB share and let it go.