In this article I am going to show how easy it is to clone a physical machine to an virtual machine

a so called “remote hot cloning of a physical server to an virtual ESX VM”

First of all vmware convertor comes in two editions a starter and enterprise edition.

	VMware Converter Starter	VMware Converter Enterprise
Environment	Designed for single migrations to VMware produces such as Virtual Intrastructure 3,VMware Player, VMware Workstation, and VMware Server	Designed for multiple concurrent migrations to Virtual Infrastructure 3 and hosted products
License	Free Download	Licensed as part of SnS (support and Subscription) with VirtualCenter Management Server
Cloning	Local hot cloning to hosted products (workstation,Vmware player,GSX Server,VMware server,) and ESX Server, remote hot cloning to hosted products only	Local hot cloninin products and ESX Server; remote hot cloning to hosted products and ESX Server; local cold cloning (convertor Boot CD) to hosted products and ESX Server
Job Management	Single migration at a time Task Editing	Multiple, concurrent migrations. Task editing

In this article I show a remote hot cloning to an ESX server which is only possible with the enterprise edition, with the starter edition its only possible to do a remote conversion to a hosted version such as workstation or server.

You can download the starter edition at the vmware website for free.To use the enterprise edition you can use the same executable but you have to download and install the license with your vmware account.

The installation of vmware convertor is very straight forward so I skipped this part in this article.

Also the cloning is very straight forward

Remote hot cloning of a physical server to an virtual ESX VM

Here you se the vmware converter console, I choose the Import Machine button to begin the p2v conversion.

In my case i choose the physical computer

Then i fill in the ip adres of the physical computer and the username and password. Be aware of the DOMAIN\user option for authentication.

Vmware convertor will connect to the server and tries to login and checks the os version. (in this version it isn’t possible to convert an windows2008 from physical to virtual, it doesn’t recognize the os version)

After the authentication and the os version check vmware is going to install an agent. You have the option to uninstall the agent from the physical machine after the conversion The installation/deinstallation of the agent doesn’t need an reboot on the source machine.

The next screen is interesting here you can resize the disk of the destination virtual machine if you want,as you can see, I have changed the size from 10 gb (original) to 8 gb.

In the starter edition the destination ESX server will be grayed out, I choose ESX as an destination

I have to fill in the address of the virtual center or ESX server, in my case i choose the VC server.

I have to choose a virtual machine name and an inventory location

And an destination ESX host server

I have to choose an destination datastore on the ESX host

In this screen you can choose how many nics you want, if the physical machine has more nics than you want in the virtual machine you can deselect them here.

This screen is the most important one, here you choose if you want to customize the identity or not.

If you choose the customize the identity you have to install the sysprep files on the vmware convertor machine

The last screen is an summary screen and the option if I want to start the destination virtual machine , he conversion starts after clicking finish.

Conclusion.

As you can see; the conversion is very straight forward and fast (up to 20 to 30 mins for large servers.)

I really like the product because its straight forward and “freely” available when you bought an ESX and VC product.

But be aware of the following

- Remote hot cloning takes more than half of the network bandwith on a 100mbps network.

- Also be aware that there is an agent installed/uninstalled on the source machine (a so called “footprint”) if you don’t want this you can use the cold clone boot CD.

As mentioned before the agent install/uninstall doesn’t need a reboot.

- Drivers and lpt ports,serial,usb ports are all configured on the destination virtual machine, if you don’t want this you have to edit your VM in Virtual center (the usb is grayed out and notice that its not supported)

- Drivers on the physical machine are still installed on the virtual machine

Sometimes its better to start over with a freshly installed VM instead of converting an dirty physical machine.

Download the free manual of vmware converter here http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual301.pdf