vCenter 5 and Import function?

[fgl]

Hello All,

I want to know if anyone else have this problem or have noticed this but after I upgraded our vCenter server and ESXi hosts from 4.1 update 1 to 5.0 the 'import' function that used to be available in vCenter when you right-click a host is now gone or missing.  I also don't see a plug-in for enterprise converter anymore either and during the upgrade/install process of vCenter I also don't see any enterprises converter install options like in previous versions.  Did I miss something during the upgrade process?

Any suggestions on how to do import or p2v or v2v from within vCenter now?

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello.

It is gone. You have to use the standalone converter now. I just blogged about this, if you want more info.

Good Luck!

[fgl]

Thanks for the info.  We will now have a moment of silence for the death of the beloved integrated converter function.

[CathayKat]

Can someone please explain how to import a new vm that was created using the standalone converter?  I'm in the middle of converting servers at our remote sites and the bandwidth is too small to support streaming the vmdks from the source directly to the virtual center server (and into shared storage).  Due to this bandwidth constraint I have to convert them to "other VMWare virtual machine" instead of VMWare infrastructure virtual machine and store the vmdks locally.  Once the conversion is complete I move the vmdk's onto portable storage and have the storage shipped to our data center.  I would then use the import function in vcenter to add them to inventory.  How does that work now that there is no integrated converter in vcenter5? Should I upload the vmdk's into storage and then just right-click on the vmx to add them to inventory?  I haven't tested this with vc 5 but I know with vc 4.1 this would fail as it didn't recognize the converted machine it as a Vmware Infrastructure virtual machine.