User guide

vConverter Functional Overview 26
Features and Functions
intervals (for example, every 15 minutes). Synchronized Cutover uses the hot cloning
method for initial and subsequent synchronizations. While cold cloning is used for the
final synchronization, you can also trigger a hot (live) final synchronization.
Note Synchronized Cutover is only available for Windows conversions.
Different Destinations Cutover
When your initial and final targets are different, select Different Destinations Cutover
(DDC) as the conversion type. The initial P2V event will target the first destination. The
VM can be moved to the second destination. Then, the initial P2V event can be
modified to allow the final synchronization to retarget the VM.
Note Different Destinations Cutover is only available for Windows conversions.
64k Alignment
Most virtual machine volumes are created in such a way that causes partitions to be
misaligned. This can cause data to be written to multiple blocks during a single write
operation, which results in poor application performance. vConverter creates VMs with
Windows volumes using the recommended 64k blocks. These blocks are aligned with
the VMFS boundaries for improved performance. This feature is always on and cannot
be controlled from GUI.
Note 64k alignment applies only to P2V Windows conversions to VMware ESX and ESXi.
Support for RDM
Raw Device Mapping (RDM) is a file in a separate VMFS volume that acts as a proxy
for a raw physical device. An RDM provides a VM with direct access to a LUN on a
fiber channel or iSCSI physical storage system. With P2V to RDM, all source volumes
to be converted are placed on a single device. Typically, an RDM is useful for utilizing
Storage Area Network (SAN) software for replication and snapshots. Input/Output (I/O)
improves because multiple servers need not read and write to a LUN; only a VM with
access to RDM will do so.