5.0

Volume-Based Cloning
During volume-based cloning, volumes from the source machine are copied to the destination machine.
Converter Standalone supports volume-based cloning for hot and cold cloning, and during the import of
existing virtual machines.
During volume-based cloning, all volumes in the destination virtual machine are converted to basic volumes,
regardless of their type in the corresponding source volume.
Volume-based cloning is performed at the file level or block level, depending on the destination volume size
that you select.
Volume-based cloning at
the file level
Performed when you select a size smaller than the original volume for NTFS
volumes or you choose to resize a FAT volume.
Volume-based cloning at the file level is supported only for FAT, FAT32, NTFS,
ext2, ext3, ext4, and ReiserFS file systems.
Dynamic source disks are read but not preserved during volume-based
conversions. Dynamic disks are converted into basic volumes on the target
virtual machine.
Volume-based cloning at
the block level
Performed when you choose to preserve the size of the source volume or when
you specify a larger volume size for NTFS source volumes.
For certain cloning modes, Converter Standalone might not support some types of source volumes.
Table 1-3 shows the supported and nonsupported source volume types.
Table 1-3. Supported and Nonsupported Source Volumes
Cloning Mode Supported Source Volumes Nonsupported Source Volumes
Virtual machine conversion
n
Basic volumes
n
All types of dynamic volumes
n
Master boot record (MBR) disks
n
RAID
n
GUID partition table (GPT) disks
Powered-on machine conversion
n
All types of source volumes that
Windows recognizes
n
Linux ext2, ext3, and ReiserFS
n
RAID
n
GUID partition table (GPT) disks
Disk-Based Cloning
Converter Standalone supports disk-based cloning to import existing virtual machines.
Disk-based cloning transfers all sectors from all disks and preserves all volume metadata. The destination
virtual machine receives partitions of the same type, size, and structure, as the partitions of the source virtual
machine. All volumes on the source machine's partitions are copied as they are.
Disk-based cloning supports all types of basic and dynamic disks.
Full and Linked Clones
Clones can be full or linked depending on the amount of data copied from the source to the destination machine.
A full clone is an independent copy of a virtual machine that shares nothing with the parent virtual machine
after the cloning operation. Ongoing operation of a full clone is separate from the parent virtual machine.
Because a full clone does not share virtual disks with the parent virtual machine, full clones generally perform
better than linked clones. Full clones take longer to create than linked clones. Creating a full clone can take
several minutes if the files involved are large.
You can create a full clone by using any disk clone type other than the linked clone type.
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone User's Guide
14 VMware, Inc.