I would like to know if it is possible to virtualize a hardware Windows PC in the following way for use with the ESXi server:
1) Use VMWare Converter to create a standalone virtual clone of the PC
2) Configure the clone using say VMWare Workstation, for example registering a new Microsoft product key for Windows
3) Then at a later time add the cloned virtual machine into the ESXi server
The reason I ask is that we have a case where an employee will move from a desktop to a new laptop and we want him to still have his old PC available for some sensitive work not compatible with a non-stationary computer.
Environment:
We have virtualized all of our servers into an ESX vCenter Server with two instances of the server.
In this environment we run about 10 servers, both Windows and Linux.
These were virtualized many years ago or added later directly inside ESXi.
This has been running for a long time now with no real problems.
We have as yet no virtualized desktops on the server.
I have recently successfully virtualized my own HP laptop (running Windows7) when I had to migrate to a newer laptop running Windows 10.
VMWare Converter did the job successfully to a standalone vm possible to use with Workstation PRO15 on the new laptop.
So I think that one way could be to virtualize externally and make sure the vm works before actually adding it into the vSphere server, provided that this path is possible.
It seems safer than doing the conversion on the mission critical vSphere Server.
What do we need to observe when doing the conversion this way?
- Target conversion level of the virtual machine? (The vCenter server is ESXi 5.5.0 206810)
- Changing the Microsoft product key
- Other issues
Thanks for any advice on this.
