Symptom:

You have just cloned a VM, and would like to rename your VMDKs to match the new name of the clone.

When you try to rename a VMDK in the GUI Datastore Browser in vSphere client, you get a message:

“At the moment, vSphere Client does not support the renaming of virtual disks”

How do you go around the message?

Instructions:

1. Lookup the name of your Datastore and your VM in the GUI.
2. Start SSH service.
3. Login as root to your ESXi host.
4. In a SSH session type the following commands. Substitute the name of your Datastore for STORAGENAME and your VM for VMNAME.
   1. cd /vmfs/volumes/STORAGENAME/VMNAME
5. Substitute the name of your old VMDK for OLDNAME and your new VMDK for NEWNAME. Remember – everything is case sensitive.
   1. vmkfstools -E ./OLDNAME.vmdk ./NEWNAME.vmdk