I have a question regards to P2V for a large physical server to be virtualised. The source and target environments are in separate datacentre locations and a P2V across the network is not in scope. The volume of data is > 1TB the current planned process is:-
My concern regards to the above method is whether the Workstation format image is compatible and can be imported into the VMware environment? i.e. is the Workstation disk format or block size different compared to ESXi? If this won’t work then to circumvent the incompatible I assume another VMware Convertor conversion from image to ESXi is possible?
On another note is the following concept possible:-
Thanks
Hello joeflint2,
In general this is a good idea. One thing you should be aware is a Converter limitation - it cannot do Linux P2V to hosted destination (i.e. Workstation format). If the server runs Windows - it is OK.
Converting from hosted to managed (ESX) is fine, the disk format is almost the same.
On the second approach (which you should probably use in the Linux case) - take into consideration that ESXi has a list of supported hardware (quite large indeed but basically server oriented). Ensure it can be installed on the laptop.
HTH,
Plamen
Hi Plamen, thanks for the feedback. The source server is an old phsyical server running Windows 2003 Server OS.
Regards to first approach - will this involve two conversions e.g. (1) P2V to workstation format on USB and (2) from USB workstation format to ESXi environment, OR can the image be imported from (1) directly into the ESXi environment?
On 2nd Approach was considering a standard laptop with a 4GB USB stick for ESXi and another USB conection for external storage. Are you saying in this case to ensure specific laptop model is used or the type of USB device?
Thanks
Hi
1st question - 2 conversions, 2nd - the laptop
Regards,
Plamen