This is my first video. As you can see this website's title, the main subject will be the virtualization. I'm gonna show you how to convert a physical server, or computer, which does not has to be a server, into a VMWare ESX server. The tool I'm gonna be using in this video is called VMWare Converter.
It's a free tool (if you converting one physical computer at a time). If you wanna convert several machines at the same time, you have to buy this product and activate with the proper serial number.
Update: Since then VMware made this product available for Free. You can launch several conversions at the same time.
If you want to use another product to backup your server, system and/or data partitions into external storage, why not use Acronis for that. Then you can CONVERT the backup image produced by Acronis into VMware or Microsoft Virtual Machine. There is several editions available. There is Workstation or Server Edition.
How to convert a physical server using VMWare converter
I hope that you enjoyed my video. You can stay tuned and subscribe for free by RSS. If you don't know what is RSS, don't worry.
Here are few posts from our archives showing some tips and tweaks for conversions, getting more speedy conversions etc etc…
- How-to disable SSL in VMware vCenter Converter Standalone to speed up P2V conversions
- VMware Converter 6.1 Supports Windows 10 and Hyper-V v3 VMs
Some more tips:
Prepare for the conversion process – There are some thinks that you should not forget, and you should always check.
– Disable real time antivirus on the source
– Shut down any kind of Database or unneeded services and applications
– Use the latest version of VMware converter
– Install the VMware converter software directly onto the source OS if you can, if not go and do remote conversion (as last resort do cold clone)
– If the NIC of the source machine is compatible TOE (TCP offload engine) card, you must disable by “Netsh int ip set chimney DISABLED”
If you’re converting server with static IP, reconfigure for DHCP, if you can (you’ll lose that conf. information during the conversion process. You can do “ipconfig /all >c:\ip.txt” to save your IP configuration into a text file on your C drive
– If you’re converting Virtual PC Virtual machine, remove the “Virtual PC additions” first
– If the destination is ESX server, connect to it via IP address (not DNS name).
– Make sure that the ports 443 and 902 are opened
– use root account for the authentication
– use unique name for the target VM in order to avoid possible DNS resolving issues with converter ( make sure that there is not another VM with the same name).
Some tips for NT4 conversions:
After Conversion Tasks – yes there are some after conversion tasks to do as well. You can do without, but to get the best possible performance, you might want to check that as well.
– Start in safe mode first.
– Uninstall some of those: RAID management tools, network teaming or management software, wireless card management software, and video and sound drivers. Restart at the normal mode. Do not restart if prompted by an uninstall program, unless you finished with all un-istallations.
– Remove all unnecessary virtual hardware. (See removing ghosted devices here).
– If the source server is configured with multi-CPU hardware abstraction layer (HAL), and the destination virtual machine is configured to use a single CPU, you should change the HAL. See in my post here how to change the HAL.
– Install VMware Tools and restart
– Change back the MSconfig configuration to normal as it was done previously
– Configure your server with static IP address (from informations you saved as I invited you to do through the dos command prompt).
– Reconnect the Virtual NIC cards as needed
More from ESX Virtualization
- What is The Difference between VMware vSphere, ESXi and vCenter
- ESXi Free vs Paid – What are the differences?
- Free Tools
- How to Install VMware Mirage Server
- What is VMware CPU Ready?
- What is VMware Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
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