It's pretty simple

- create a new VM using the reconfigured .vmdk

In a perfect world, that's all you need to do. If you run into problems, come back here...

Ken did an awesome job detailing out the process for you. You should be able to preload the SCSI driver that you will need for running the vm's on ESX (LSI or Buslogic depending on what OS).

DB

Message was edited by: boydd - Definately can't type - spelling?

I think the support guy was mentioning that ide was not supported by the P2V boot cd....
Creating a ghost image and restoring the image into the new VM.. next running the assistant to reconfigure the disk should do the trick..

What they told you in this letter is simply not true. I did such a P2V conversion this weekend from my laptop, which certainly doesn't use SCSI, so noone will tell me I didn't do it or that it can't be done.

I booted on the P2V cd and did a capture to my PC. P2V inserted an LSI driver into the .vmdk image, so I had to download and install (F6 during CD bootup) an LSI driver from the LSI website and then do a repair-install of XP. I then started it in safe mode to clean out "Run" entries no longer valid in the registry. After this, booted it up, and there it was, my good old IDE-based laptop all virtualized, but now with an LSI SCSI driver.

/Henrik

I'm not a huge fan of the P2V boot CD. It usually works, but it definitely has it's share of issues. Instead, I normally use Ghost to get the image and then P2V to convert it. The process that I use has never failed (yet - knock on wood.) In a nutshell:

1. Use the boot disk of your choice to boot Ghost. I typically use a customized version of BartPE, but you can use pretty much anything that you want as long as it has the drivers that you need.
2. Create a "Helper VM," create and attach a second .vmdk (this will become the system drive for the new server.)
3. Install Ghost and P2V assistant on the helper vm.
4. Boot the source machine and the helper VM. Get Ghost working. Do a "disk to disk" clone from the source machine to the target disk (on the helper VM.)
5. Once the image is done, reboot the helper VM. When it reboots, run the P2V assistant.
6. When the P2V assistant is done, shut down the helper VM. Detach the second .vmdk. Create a new VM, but choose "custom" and use an existing disk (the second .vmdk from the helper VM.)
7. Boot, do any post-config stuff (IP Address, hostname, install vmware tools, etc.)
8. Rinse, repeat a few hundred times, enjoy.

One caveat - if you're P2Ving an NT box, your helper VM should be NT. Win2K, 2K3, XP should be interchangeable. (I typically use WinXP for my non-NT helper VM and it has always worked.)

The toughest part for me when I was getting started was to find a boot CD that had drivers for all of the servers that I use. Luckily someone had already done most of the work for me. Google "BartPE drivers" and / or "Ultimate Boot CD Windows drivers" for some tips and hints.