VMware, a leader in the development of software for creating and managing virtual machines, provides free tools that are very useful to help the users to manage virtual machines in their work environment. One of these is precisely VMware vCenter Converter , a free software mainly useful for converting physical machines into virtual machines, but which can also be used to reconfigure existing virtual machines.
This tool can be downloaded from this link. So it immediately shows a truly powerful and complete tool. In this article we will see what kind of installation this software allows and how to convert a physical machine into a virtual machine.
The installation of VMware Converter can be done either on a physical machine or on a virtual machine. The Client-Server installation allows you to select the converter components that you want to install on your system:. The local installation installs all components for local use the server, the converter agent, and the converter client , and then the remote access form is excluded.
Converting a physical machine into a virtual one using the VMware vCenter Converter is very simple. When opened, the program shows a window where you can immediately open the wizard to start the conversion see image below. In the first case you can choose a physical PC Windows or Linux accessible remotely or the local machine itself.
Otherwise you will have to choose the host you want to connect to VMware vSphere, WMware Workstation or Hyper-V , and enter your login information see image below. The next step is to choose the destination datacenter on the ESXi host where you are logged in see image below.
In this section it will also be possible to choose the hardware version of the virtual machine to be created. At this point it will be possible to edit the hardware settings number of CPUs, the amount of RAM, etc of the virtual machine that is about to be created see image below. The last tab shows the summary of the details of the virtual machine being generated see image below. Not only does it offer support for VMware and Microsoft virtual machine formats, but it's also well-versed when it comes to dealing with third-party disk image formats.
The main benefits provided by this useful app are: centralized and simultaneous, large-scale conversions of physical servers and virtual machines, ensured conversion reliability through efficient snapshotting of the guest OS on the source machine, and support for hot cloning with practically no server downtime or the need for restart.
That said, working with VMware Converter Standalone is all about undergoing its intuitive wizards with four-steps each. As mentioned before, the machines you are allowed to convert range from physical machines, to VMware virtual machines. From the File menu, you can opt to either convert or to configure a machine. The first choice requires you to pick between two source systems, either powered on or off. By going with the "Powered on" mode, you can choose between remote Windows machine and remote Linux machine, and type in the credentials in order to log in.
Of course, you are also required to input the login information and even pick the virtual machine file in the case of the second option.
To complete the process, you will have to pick the destination system and a few other options. The process ends with you being provided with a full summary view of all the changes and, as expected, configuring a machine can be dealt with just as easily and in a similar fashion. Taking everything into account, VMware Converter Standalone is a relatively intuitive application that has the potential to make the lives of system administrators and developers alike a bit better by providing them with a straightforward, wizard-powered solution to automate the creation of VMware virtual machines from physical ones.
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