User guide

Windows P2V Conversions 77

Conversion Overview

The standard Windows P2V process follows the basic workflow described below.

The main components of the

conversion process are the Drive

Capture Tool (which sends the data)

and the Target Server Agent (which

receives the data).

After the job is executed and the

Drive Capture Tool (DCT) starts

sending data to ESX, it is detected

by the Target Server Agent (TSA)

service running. This starts the

server component particular to that

job. Multiple jobs can run at the

same time and each job will use its

own server component instance.

To transfer data to the target, a new

VMDK file is created. VMDKs are

created in a sparse (Growable)

format by default, but can

optionally be created as flat disks.

You can specify a unique VMDK

file and datastore for each Windows

volume.

The TSA receives data from the

DCT and places it in the VMDK

file. If a block of zeroed data is

detected by the DCT, it is ignored.

The zeroes already exist in the

VMDK, so there is no reason to overwrite them.

(Optional) After all data has been transferred to the VMDK file, the server component

can resize the files based on job configuration. In this case, the NTFS partition is

modified as well.

The server component performs the conversion and creates a bootable instance of the

VM with the proper drivers. A VM is created and registered on the ESX host based on

job configuration settings that include assigned memory, VHD, and virtual network