Convertor very slow - is this normal?

[dgard]

Hi all,

I'm new to all this and just converting my first machine. All I am doing is making a carbon copy of one of our Terminal Servers that is already running on a ESXi box and putting that copy on the same box, but it is only converting at a rate of 1.71MB/s. As this is not even across a network, it is on the same box, I was expecting a far greater transfer rate than this, so I'm very supprised at the slowness of it. Even if for some reason the data from the machine being created still needs to go out of the ESXi box it is already on, through the machine that is running the convertor and then back on to the ESXi box I'd still expect far greater speeds as everything on the network is Gigabit.

Does anybody know if it is normal for it to be this slow, and if it is not do you have any tips for settings that I can check/tweak?

Any help appriciated.

Thanks.

[RvdNieuwendijk]

VMware Convertor can be slow because all the data goes through the server where VMware Convertor is running. Why don't you use "Clone to New Virtual Machine" to make a copy of a virtual machine? This is much faster.

Regards, Robert

[dgard]

Hi Robert, and thanks for the reply.

Ok, didn't know you could clone, and after a quick bit of research it seems that a Linked Clone would be perfect. However, I have read a couple of tutorials and both say that I should be able to just select 'Linked Clone' from the drop-down in the 'Data to copy' option, but I do not appear to have that option - image attached showing the options I do have.

Any ideas at all?

Thanks.

[RvdNieuwendijk]

Afaik you can't create linked clones using the VMware vSphere Client. I found this blogpost Linked Clones on vSphere that describes ways to make a linked clone in vSphere. But maybe it is easier to make a full clone.

[RvdNieuwendijk]

Hal Rottenberg created a VMware vSphere PowerCLI script for the creation of linked clones in vSphere: New-LinkedClone.

Eric Sloof has adapted this script and made it available in the vEcoShell: Creating LinkedClones with the Virtualization EcoShell.

Message was edited by: RvdNieuwendijk

[dgard]

I'm trying now to sus out how to make a full clone but cannot really find much on it. As for making the linked clone - I was trying to use the Convertor Standalonw and following instructions from the help on that, so a little mystified as to why I don't have that option available!

Thanks.

[RvdNieuwendijk]

See my update in the above post for information about how you can make a linked clone in a gui using vEcoShell. To make a full clone in the VMWare vSphere Client you right-click on a virtual machine and select Clone...

[dgard]

Well, seems like it's not my day - the vSphere Client offers no Clone option on the right click menu, and after you pointed me in that direction I found out also that the option should be available under commands, but again it's not there. It seems the VM Gods don't like me!

I'll do some more reading on both Linked and Full and see what I come up with, but at least I know the option exissts somewhere out there now, so thanks for the help.

Thanks.

[continuum · Accepted solution]

here is a way that describes how to create linked clomes manually

http://sanbarrow.com/linkedcloneswithesxi.html




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VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[dgard]

Thanks for that continuum, that is actually pretty easy. The only thing on there that I am struggling with is the instruction that simply says "Now all is left to do is add the vmx-file to the inventory" - sadly I'm such a noob I have no idea how to do this! When I click 'New Virtual Machine' in the inventory it seems as if vShpere is trying to create one from scratch, as opposed to adding a the clone.

Any pointer on that would be great.

Thanks.

EDIT: Ignore that, I have just found a post about it so got it. Thanks.