Take the 2-minute tour ×

I need to get files from a Linux VM that was hosted on an iSCSI volume attached to a XenServer host, but I no longer have any XS hosts around (they've all been converted to VMware).

I've already gotten to the point where I can mount the volume group (LVM) available on that iSCSI LUN, and I can see all the disks that were previously used by VMs in that LUN.

But neither mount nor fdisk can detect the FS type (presumably because they can't read VHDs). I've even tried using vdfuse, but no luck in getting it to work.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to work?

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

up vote 0 down vote accepted

I found an old post (2007) on the Citrix forums that said it can't be done without a Xen server - http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1011364 - and another post (2009) that points to some non-free tools to do it: http://forums.citrix.com/message.jspa?messageID=1404022. There was a reference in the second thread to yet another post that shows you might be able to mount these using the "Attach VHD" action available in the Windows 7 Disk Management MMC.

share|improve this answer
In the end, I set up a XenServer host temporarily just to open the disks and copy content out of them, but mounting in Windows might be the way to go. –  magu Aug 20 '11 at 4:07
Thanks for letting me know. I was surprised when I found that opening them in Windows might be the option and was really curious if it would work or not. I use KVM and VMware so I don't have any XenServer generated VHDs to test it out on. –  Johnathan May Aug 20 '11 at 18:55

Your Answer


