Are there any problems in creating a VM in VMware Workstation or Server and then move it to ESXi?

[rfn]

Hi,

I'm planning to move our mailserver from it's current Windows Server 2003 installation running on native hardware to a Windows Server 2008 running in a VM on ESXi.

It's the same machine that we will reuse so I would prefer to be able to create the VM on another machine and test it before wiping Windows and installing ESXi. Are there any problems with creating the VM in VMware Server and then migrate it to ESXi using VMware Converter? I won't do it if the result isn't a "perfect" VM that performs just as well as if it had been created on ESXi from the beginning.

All our other VM's have been created on ESXi from the beginning.

Regards,

René Frej Nielsen

[DSTAVERT]

There can be issues but using Converter to move VMs between WS or Server and ESXi generally work just fine. Make sure you use as many precautions as practical to protect your data. You never know. Use new drives for the ESXi datastore and keep the originals as insurance. If the conversion fails for ANY reason you can pop the drives back in and try again. Install ESXi to a USB flash drive. Resize the data disks to more closely reflect the disk space used.

[rfn]

Hi,

Unfortunately I don't have new drives for the server, since it's only a year old and I can't get the funding for new drives "just" to be sure... It's a good advice, but it's just not possible in this case.

With that said, then our mailserver configuration is not that complicated (it's not Exchange) so very little can go wrong. I was just interested in knowing if there's any issue at all with converting a VM from VMware Server til ESXi or if I should create the VM on ESXi from the beginning if I wanted the best possible configuration and performance.

Regards,

René Frej Nielsen

[Luckybob]

Like said, you shouldn't have too many issues going from Workstation to ESXi using the converter. You would get the best possible conversion going from ESXi to ESXi, but if that is not possible, the other method should work just fine. I usualy just copy the VM files over to any new location and import the VM into the new host (I have done this for production to lab testing between Workstation, ESX 3.5 to ESXi 4).

[rfn]

OK... I would prefer to create the VM on ESXi but I don't think that we have enough storage space on a single server. You have almost convinced me that it's safe to create the VM in VMware Server beforehand...

Regards,

René Frej Nielsen

[Luckybob · Accepted solution]

If you aren't too sure, you can load VMware Server 2 and then install ESXi within it and test your setup. This can all be done from your desktop (as long as it is decent). You can also do this in workstation. A quick search on google should give you all the information you need on getting something like this setup.

[rfn]

You're correct... that's a possibility and perhaps the best solution for this situation, since I don't need great performance but just the ability to create the VM, install, configure and update Windows Server 2008 and install the mailserver software.

I have seen the instructions that you refer to and have actually tried to both install ESXi 4 on VMware Fusion and upgrade a ESXI 3.5 to 4.0 in Fusion, just to see if it would work.

Thank you for replies... they were very helpfull!

Regards,

René Frej Nielsen