VMware vCenter Converter - P2V Linux Machine Error?

[deed02392]

I'm trying to do P2V with a Debian powered-on source. Everything works perfectly up until the point of selecting destination.

It states that the destination type is VMware Infrastructure virtual machine.

It asks for the server details and along the right it states that supported VMware Infrastructure products include VMware vCenter Server 2.0, 2.5 and 4.0. Great, I thought, because I'm running VMware vCenter Server 4.0.1 on this (both) machine(s).

So I try to specify the details of my machine but I get any one of a few errors:

• Timeout
• Unable to recognise the server type or version
• Target machine actively refused the connection

What confuses me the most is that I'm using the same details of the server I connected to in the first place, therefore I know that it can connect to the server and it is running.

The server is running on my laptop, the agent is running on the Linux machine. I get this same error whether I use the client on my laptop or the Linux machine itself!

Any ideas? Do I need another product running to be the 'destination'?

[ivivanov]

I am not sure what you mean by

I'm using the same details of the server I connected to in the first place, therefore I know that it can connect to the server and it is running.

You need a VMware vCenter Server or ESX server in order to perform Linux P2V conversion. If you are providing the info for VMware vCenter CONVERTER Server it won't work.

You don't need to install anything on the Linux source in order to perform the conversion - you just need SSH enabled for the root user.

[deed02392]

It is probable that the mere difference of a single word is the cause of my weekend long frustration. I will need to procure a copy of VMware vCenter Server then and let you know how it goes.

Useful to know I didn't need to install anything on the server as well. I had to install a desktop environment etc thinking that was necessary. This stuff needs more documentation!

This is a one off conversion, is it possible there's a free or trial edition of ESX or VMware vCenter Server I can use to complete this process?