However, remember the golden rule of VMware storage: ESXi is the owner. As long as you mount as read-only, you remain safe. Pushing for read-write hot access is an expert-only move that requires removing the datastore from production.
: Create a new virtual machine in VMware Workstation and install a trial version of ESXi. mount vmfs 6 windows hot
If you are a VMware administrator, you have faced this nightmare: An ESXi host fails. A virtual machine (VM) won’t power on. Your backup is corrupted. The only hope is to pull a physical disk from the server, attach it to a Windows machine, and copy the VMDK files directly. However, remember the golden rule of VMware storage: