User guide

vConverter Functional Overview 25

Features and Functions

vConverter sends a new boot loader to the source.

vConverter sends the VistaPE boot image file directly to the source and initiates a

reboot.

The source boots into the vConverter boot image and instantiates the network

stack.

vConverter establishes contact with the conversion monitor and initiates the

conversion process.

Once conversion is complete, the source restarts and boots into its previous boot

environment with the previous boot loader intact.

The VistaPE environment used in Remote Cold Cloning will assign the volume letter

“X” to its own RAM drive volume. If the VistaPE is used to convert a physical volume

with the same volume label, the PE environment will become unavailable to

vConverter. Please ensure that source systems do not use the volume letter “X” when

converting with the VistaPE environment.

Continuous Protection Mode

You can protect datacenter workloads by addressing disaster recovery (DR) through

virtualization. Taking a P2V approach, vConverter preserves a virtual backup copy of a

physical machine. When you select Continuous Protection as the conversion type,

incremental replication is used. During this process, network usage is minimized

because only changes to source data files are transferred to the target. You define the

intervals at which these transfers occur. Continuous Protection uses a hot cloning

method to avoid disruption to the source server.

Note Continuous Protection is only available for Windows conversions.

Synchronized Cutover

A cutover is the process of switching from the source VM to the target VM. A cutover

window is the period of time on a specific date (or span of dates) when it is acceptable

to perform cutover. Pre-synchronized cutover occurs after the initial copying phase of

the conversion, when any remaining changes to the source are copied to the target and

committed.

Synchronized Cutover allows you to minimize the cutover window by completing a

P2V conversion and synchronizing changes on the source to the target at specified