User guide

Windows V2P Conversions 137

Windows V2P Overview

vConverter offers the ability to convert Windows VMs back to a physical target.

vConverter uses a VistaPE boot image to boot the physical system, so the target server

does not need to have an OS.

Once you configure a task and specify the source VM, vConverter obtains the essential

information about it using the Conversion Service. This is done either via a special API

provided by the source virtualization platform (for ESX/ESXi, and Hyper-V servers) or

by reading the VM configuration directly from .VMX or .VMC files (for VMware

Workstation, Microsoft VirtualPC, etc). This information is saved in vConverter

together with the task settings, and is used during the conversion process.

To specify the target system in the Task Properties pane, you need to first boot it using

the VistaPE boot image. The Server Information Tool is then launched, which enables

vConverter to get required disk information from the target.

When V2P conversion is started, the Conversion Service enables the V2P Migration

Tool on the target. The tool reads the source VM disk image sector by sector and

restores an exact partition layout. After that, it launches the Hardware Application Tool

which prepares the restored system for the first run on the new hardware.

An architectural representation of the Windows V2P process is shown below: