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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 and Powered On Virtual 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
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 hours or even days if the files involved are large.
You can create a full clone by using any disk clone type other than the linked clone type.
A linked clone is a copy of a virtual machine that shares virtual disks with the parent virtual machine in an
ongoing manner. A linked clone is a fast way to convert and run a new virtual machine. You can create a
linked clone from the current state, or snapshot, of a powered off virtual machine. This practice conserves
disk space and lets multiple virtual machines use the same software installation.
All files available on the source machine at the moment of the snapshot continue to remain available to the
linked clone. Ongoing changes to the virtual disk of the parent do not affect the linked clone, and changes to
the disk of the linked clone do not affect the source machine. If you make changes to a source Virtual PC
and Virtual Server machines, or to LiveState images, the linked clone is corrupted and cannot be used
anymore.
A linked clone must have access to the source. Without access to the source, you cannot use a linked clone.
For more information about how to create a linked clone, see “Create a Linked Clone,” on page 62.
Using Converter Standalone with Virtual Machine Sources and
System Images
With Converter Standalone, you can convert virtual machines and system images, and configure VMware
virtual machines.
Converting virtual
machines
You can convert VMware virtual machines from and to Workstation,
VMware Player, VMware Fusion, Hyper-V, ESX, ESXi Embedded, and
ESXi Installable. You can also import virtual machines from Microsoft
Virtual Server and Virtual PC.
Chapter 1 Introduction to VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
VMware, Inc. 15