5.5
Table Of Contents
- VMware vCenter Converter Standalone User's Guide
- Contents
- About This Book
- Introduction to VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
- Migration with Converter Standalone
- Converter Standalone Components
- Cloning and System Configuration of Physical Machines
- Types of Data Cloning Operations
- Using Converter Standalone with Virtual Machine Sources and System Images
- System Settings Affected by Conversion
- Changes to Virtual Hardware After Virtual Machine Migration
- System Requirements
- Supported Operating Systems
- Supported Firmware Interfaces
- Supported Source Types
- Supported Destination Types
- Supported Source Disk Types
- Supported Destination Disk Types
- Support for IPv6 in Converter Standalone
- Installation Space Requirements
- Screen Resolution Requirements
- Configuring Permissions for vCenter Users
- TCP/IP and UDP Port Requirements for Conversion
- Requirements for Remote Hot Cloning of Windows Operating Systems
- Conversion Limitations
- Installing and Uninstalling Converter Standalone
- Perform a Local Installation on Windows
- Perform a Client-Server Installation in Windows
- Perform a Command-Line Installation in Windows
- Command-Line Options for Windows Installation
- Modify Converter Standalone in Windows
- Repair Converter Standalone in Windows
- Uninstall Converter Standalone in Windows
- Connect to a Remote Converter Standalone Server
- Convert a Physical or Virtual Machine
- Start the Wizard for a Conversion
- Select a Source Machine to Convert
- Select a Powered On Windows Machine to Convert
- Select a Powered On Linux Machine to Convert
- Select an ESX/ ESXi or vCenter Server Virtual Machine to Convert
- Select a VMware Hosted Virtual Machine to Convert
- Select a Backup Image or a Third-Party Virtual Machine to Convert
- Select a Hyper-V Server Virtual Machine to Convert
- Select a Destination for the New Virtual Machine
- Configure the Hardware of the Destination Virtual Machine
- Organize the Data to Be Copied on the Destination Machine
- Resize a Volume
- Change a Volume Cluster Size
- Exclude a Source Volume from the Conversion Process
- Move a Volume to a Different Virtual Disk
- Select the Destination Datastore for a Source Volume
- Add a Virtual Disk
- Set Up a Virtual Disk as a Logical-Volume Group Container
- Move a Disk to a Different Datastore
- Create an Expandable Disk on a Managed Destination
- Create an Expandable Disk on a Hosted Destination
- Exclude a Source Disk from the Conversion Process
- Copy All Disks to the Destination
- Create an Optimized Partition Layout
- Create a Linked Clone
- Edit the Number of Processor Sockets and Cores
- Allocate Memory for the Destination Virtual Machine
- Select a Disk Controller for the Destination Virtual Machine
- Configure the Network Settings of the Destination Virtual Machine
- Configure the Network for the Helper Virtual Machine
- Organize the Data to Be Copied on the Destination Machine
- Configure the Software on the Destination Virtual Machine
- Configure the Conversion Job
- Set the Startup Mode for Destination Services
- Stop Services Running on the Source Machine
- Synchronize the Destination Machine with Changes Made to the Source Machine
- Power Off the Source Machine After Conversion
- Power On the Destination Virtual Machine After Conversion
- Limit the Amount of Resources Used by the Conversion Job
- Uninstall Converter Standalone Agent from the Source Machine
- Review the Summary and Submit the Conversion Job
- Configure Virtual Machines
- Save Sysprep Files
- Start the Configuration Wizard
- Select a Source Machine to Configure
- Select the Options to Configure
- Review and Submit the Configuration Job
- Manage Conversion and Configuration Jobs and Tasks
- Index
Hot Cloning of Physical Machines
With Converter Standalone, you can perform hot cloning.
Hot cloning, also called live cloning or online cloning, requires converting the source machine while it is
running its operating system. Hot cloning lets you clone machines without shutting them down.
Because processes continue to run on the source machine during conversion, the resulting virtual machine is
not an exact copy of the source machine.
When converting Windows sources, you can set Converter Standalone to synchronize the destination virtual
machine with the source machine after hot cloning. Synchronization is performed by transferring from the
source to the destination the blocks that were changed during the initial cloning period. To avoid loss of
data on the destination virtual machine, Converter Standalone can shut down certain Windows services
before the synchronization. Based on your settings, Converter Standalone shuts down the selected Windows
services so that no critical changes occur on the source machine while destination is being synchronized.
Converter Standalone can shut down the source machine and power on the destination machine when the
conversion process is complete. When combined with synchronization, this action allows seamless
migration of a physical machine source to a virtual machine destination. The destination machine takes over
the source machine operations with the least possible downtime.
NOTE When you hot clone dual-boot systems, you can clone only the default operating system to which the
boot.ini file or the BCD points. To clone the nondefault operating system, change the boot.ini file or the
BCD to point to the other operating system and reboot. After the other operating system is booted, you can
hot clone it. If your second operating system is Linux, you can boot it and clone it using the standard
procedure for cloning Linux physical machine sources.
Remote Hot Cloning of Physical Machine Sources That Are Running Windows
You can use the Conversion wizard to set up conversion tasks and Converter Standalone components
perform all of the cloning tasks.
The following workflow is an example of remote hot cloning in which the physical machine being cloned
experiences no downtime.
1 Converter Standalone prepares the source machine for the conversion.
Converter Standalone installs the agent on the source machine and the agent takes a snapshot of the
source volumes.
agent
vCenter Converter Standalone running
on Windows machine
powered-on
physical machine
ESX/ESXi
source
destination
network
snapshot
source
volumes
2 Converter Standalone prepares the virtual machine on the destination machine.
Chapter 1 Introduction to VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
VMware, Inc. 11