Migrate off other product to VMWare. p2v Linux and Windows (solaris x86) fails

[sdetweil]

I'm an individual user running Parallels VM hypervisor on Windows and Linux hosts.

I have an educational development system built on these VMs. git, svn, rtc, jenkins,...

I need to port the VMs to VMWare.. player is fine.  

the converter doesn't understand the format of my Parallels 6 pvs files (I guess it must be assuming Mac format)

I have been unable to get the 2 windows (xp and 7pro) off using the remote.. unable to connect to machine_ip\ADMIN$

they are not in a domain, just a local workgroup.   none of the fixes work.(edit the registry, restart vss, etc) very simple systems.  no office stuff installed,

but I want to keep the exact config.

the linux ones I can connect to, but they want to convert to some vmware infrastructure product format..

no idea which one works for a single user educational user.  don't need ESX.. systems are running some OS already.

one running Ubuntu 12.04 64bit (8gig ram, max, 1 terabyte disk), other running Windows 7 pro 64bit. (32gig ram, max, 6 terabyte disk)

the Ubunto 12.04 system has the parallels app with almost all the VM's running all the time.

the linux vms are

fedora 10(32 bit), 14(64bit), 17(64 bit),

ubuntu 12.04 both 32 & 64bit

redhat ?? 2.6.9-34 kernel.

solaris 10.1 x86

[POCEH]

About Windows convertions: if the 3rd party format is unsupported then try to convert machines as powered on (like physical ones), also ensure there is no firewall activated and UAC is off for Vista+ OSes.

About Linux conversions: migration of live Linux require ESX as target... otherwise you can do migration manually - create the proper VM, then format and transfer disks with tar, finally reconfig the bott loader etc.

HTH

[sdetweil]

Man thats a lot of work.

[patanassov]

If you can use some ESX temporarily, convert to it, then convert the powered off VMs to Workstation/Player format.

Take into account Converter doesn't work with Solaris. You'll have to migrate these manually.

Regards

Plamen

[sdetweil]

thanks.. but I don't have another machine to install ESX on. as it is a bare metal system, the hardware would have to be dedicated to ESX.

I see that I can install ESX onto a USB boot disk.  having never used ESX, can I access existing partitions from that boot image?

[sdetweil]

I made a USB boot disk and added some extra storage to put the VM's, installed ESXi, and migrated 3 of the Linux powered on VMs.

the redhat one boots, stalls at turn on swap..

the two fedora (10 32 bit ad 14 64bit) both panic early in the boot sequence)..

have to figure out how to debug these.

the tar the drive approach has failed all three times.. it 'might' be volume size related.. still working on alternatives there