vmware-vdiskmanager and CentOS 6

This is how you install vmware-vdiskmanager on CentOS 6. I needed to do this so I could read my old vmware-server vmdk.

First go this old KB article and download 1023856-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1.zip. It's at the bottom, in the Attachements section. Now you do the following little dance:

unzip 1023856-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1.zip
cp 1023856-vmware-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1  /usr/local/sbin/vmware-vdiskmanager 
chmod +x  /usr/local/sbin/vmware-vdiskmanager
yum -y install zlib.i686 glibc.i686 openssl098e.i686
md -pv /usr/lib/vmware/lib
cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/
ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8e 
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so.0.9.8 
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so.0
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so
ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8e
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so.0.9.8
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so.0
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so

That fucking around in /usr/lib/vmware/lib is because even though VMware claims this is a static binary, it in fact dynamically loads crypto libraries at run time from non-standard places.

You can now convert your split vmdk to a single file and mount it:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sda.vmdk -t 0 sda-single.vmdk
modprobe nbd max_part=8
qemu-nbd -r --connect=/dev/nbd0 sda-single.vmdk
kpartx -a /dev/nbd0
vgscan
vgchange -a y YOURVG
mount -o ro /dev/mapper/YOURVG-YOURLV /mnt

Aren't you glad you created a unique VG for each of your VMs?

To unmount:

umount /mnt
vgchange -a n YOURVG
kpartx -d /dev/nbd0
qemu-nbd -d sda-single.vmdk