For my first test, I used a virtual machine instead of a physical one running under VMware Workstation 5.5. However, I told VMware Converter that it is a physical machine. To my surprise, it really worked. I remotely connected to this VM telling VMware Converter the IP and the credentials.

As destination I chose a shared folder on the same machine where VMware Converter was running. My source system, i.e. the VM running on VMware Workstation, was also on this computer. So, there was only one physical machine involved in my test. As destination format, I used VMware Workstation/Server. You can also convert to the ESX format.

My source machine was running Windows Server 2003 SP1 and had one hard disk with about 4 GB space occupied. The good news is that you can also use VMware Converter to resize a virtual disk. When I tested the Beta I wasn’t sure if the the Starter Edition would have this feature.

The whole conversion process took me just a couple of minutes. After 99% VMware Converter stopped the conversion telling me that it failed. But the new VM worked without any problems.

I didn’t find any hints in the logs why I got the error message. By the way, it is quite complicated to access these log files. You have to use Windows Explorer on the source machine to access the log files of the agent. VMware Converter has its own log files. Why can’t I access all these log files from the VMware Converter user interface?

I like VMware Converter 3. After all, the Starter Edition is for free. I’ll probably convert some “real” physical machine soon with it. Stay tuned!

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

The Enterprise Edition allows multiple concurrent conversions, whereas the Starter Edition can only convert one machine at the same time. Another difference is that the Enterprise Edition supports cold cloning, i.e. the migration of powered off machines.

Since the OS of the source system isn’t running in a cold migration, the cloning process is less error prone. To cold clone a physical machine you have to boot from a Windows PE CD which will launch VMware Converter.

VMware Converter 3 has an easy-to-use wizard which guides you thru the configuration of the conversion task. At the first step you have to decide what kind of conversion you are planning. There are five options: physical computer, remote physical computer, VMware virtual machine, Microsoft virtual machine, and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery or Ghost 9 image.

I tried to convert a remote physical computer which probably is the most common scenario. You have to tell VMware Converter the IP address and the credentials of the remote machine. Then you choose the disk volumes you want to convert. It is possible to enlarge the disk space during the conversion. You probably can also use this to resize the disks of a virtual machine. I didn’t try this, though.

VMware Converter installs an agent on the remote machine in order to copy the contents of the disks in a consistent state. The virtual machine files will be copied to a network share by this agent.

You can change several settings of the source system which will be applied to the virtual machine. For example, you can change the computer name, the Windows license and the security ID (SID) using Microsoft’s sysprep tool.

My test server was an old PC running Windows 2000 Server SP4. The installation of the agent was done within minutes. Afterwards the server had to reboot. Unfortunately, the conversion failed. It reached almost 100%, but then the transfer was cancelled. It seems I am not the only one who had this problem.

I then tried a machine with Windows Server 2003 SP1. This time the server didn’t reboot after the installation of the agent. But now the transfer was extremely slow. I had to cancel the conversion. I suppose this must be a bug too, since this server is much faster than the first one.

It seems that this beta version is not yet reliable enough. However, I think that VMware Converter will be a great tool if these problems are solved. Since we plan to convert several physical servers within the next months, I will keep an eye on it. Let me know if your test was more successful.

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

The article didn’t mention it, but it seems that VMware Converter 3 is the successor of VMware P2V Assistant 2. VMware Converter will be available in six months. A beta version is scheduled in early October. You can register now, if you want to try it.

Recently, I wrote an article about P2V solutions. This is still one of the most often accessed posts on this blog. Obviously, there is a great demand on such tools at the moment. It is quite interesting to note that there will be a free version of it. I think, for many smaller companies it will be a decisive argument for a virtualization solution if there is an easy-to-use free P2V tool available.

Update: Please read my review of VMware Converter 3.0.

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

P2V migration tools

• VMware P2V Assistant
• PlateSpin PowerConvert
• Leosteam P2V Direct 3.0
• Ultimate-P2V
• EZP2V Plugin for PE Builder
• Portlock Storage Manager for VMware ESX Server (see this PDF for details)

P2V tips and migration stories

• Damian Murdoch
• Geert Baeke
• Marco Linz
• Mark Wilson (about Platespin PowerConvert)
• Ben (for Virtual PC, but also applicable for VMWare): part1, part2, part3, part4

P2V articles and reviews

• InfoWorld: PlateSpin, Leostream ease the move to virtual datacenters
• InfoWorld: Migrating Physical to Virtual Machines – Then and Now
• TECHWORLD: Migrating from physical to virtual’s getting easier
• Virtual Strategy Magazine: To P2V or Not to P2V
• InfoWorld: Is Symantec Getting into the P2V Business?

There is another document I want to mention for the Rockefellers among us. It is a 3-page article about P2V basics from Forrester Research, priced at US$349 only. It is so easy to make good money these days, isn’t it?

Update: Please read this post about VMware’s free P2V solution, VMware Converter 3.0.

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

1. VMware P2V Assistant VMware offers a tool for this purpose. The only problem with this option is that the VMware P2V Assistant is quite expensive. Prices start at about $2,500 for the VMware P2V Assistant Starter Edition which allows 25 migrations. The VMware P2V Assistant Enterprise Edition costs more than $6,100.

2. PlateSpin PowerConvert Platespin PowerConvert seems to be a more sophisticated tool since it allows any kind of conversion. It not only supports VMware but also Microsoft’s format. Prices start at 2,619 Euro.

3. Ultimate-P2V plug-in for BartPE BartPE helps you to boot Windows XP/2003 from CD-ROM. It is similar to Microsoft’s Windows Preinstallation Environment. Ultimate-P2V, a plug-in for BartPE, allows you to clone a physical machine to a virtual machine. BartPE and Ultimate-P2V are free, but you need a cloning tool like Symantec’s Ghost which is not free. Compared to solution 1 and 2, it is much cheaper though. I didn’t try Ultimate-P2V. At first glance, this option seems to be only for advanced system administrators.

4. Use a cloning tool with boot CD This option is quite similar to 3, however, you need a cloning tool that supports creating boot CDs, where you can store the image. Using an imaging solution means that you have to exchange the HAL with one that suits the new “hardware” environment. This site has a detailed description. 5. Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit The Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit is free, but it only helps you to convert physical machines to Microsoft’s virtual machine format. However, you can import this format in VMware Server or VMware Workstation. The problem with this solution is that the Migration toolkit requires Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS), although for free, only runs on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The whole procedure to migrate a physical server to a virtual machine is quite complicated. Check out this white paper to learn how it works.

6. Install a new virtual server and restore a backup If you only have a few physical servers that you want to convert to virtual machines then this might be the fastest way. Of course, you don’t have to install Windows for every new virtual machine. If you have VMware Workstation you can clone them and if you only have VMware Server you can just copy the folder containing the virtual machine of your master server. Don’t forget to run sysprep afterwards to get a unique Windows Server, then restore a backup of the physical server to the new virtual machine. Don’t restore the hardware specific settings of your physical server.

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

You can even use image formats from Symantec (Ghost), Acronis and Platespin to create virtual machines. An interesting feature is that one can perform live transfers without taking source servers offline or rebooting them. At least, that it is what they purport on the product homepage of PowerConvert. Prices start at 2,619 Euro.

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)

• FREE: vWorkspace Desktop Optimizer – Optimize VDI performance (0)
• SCVMM 2012 review – Part 5: Integrating with VMware and Citrix XenServer, Cluster patching (0)
• VMware Backups – Troubleshoot the Consolidate Helper-0 backup error (1)
• Installing a driver in an existing VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi host (1)
• How to add VMware vSphere 4.1 ESX/ESXi hosts to Active Directory (1)