I have a physical Linux machine running CentOS 4.x 32 bit. I do not have the root password, but I do have a user with sudo rights. I have tried cold cloning with Acronis 11 with limited success. I can get it to work if I use Acronis to restore the image into an existing vm and using Acronis's "universal restore" feature to get some of the drivers installed correctly. The problem is that it still leaves a lot of the devices as unknown. In addition, when I try to install vmtools, I get a kernel panic on reboot. I have seen a lot of posts on the "kernel panic after vmtools install", but have had little success with any of the solutions.
Anyway, I would like to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. What would be the best way to convert a Linux machine to a vm when you do not have the root password ? I only have the basic Essentials version of vSphere, so I do not have access to the cold clone iso available in the Enterprise version ( I can't figure out why the clone iso is not available in Converter). I am running vSphere 5 and Converter 5.
Thanks,
Warren
