This is an annoying development, as we have been relying on Converter Standalone to take backups of VMs. So our library of backup and template VMs are in OVA and OVF format.
OK we can still do this using the vSphere Client, but this means we can queue up a series of VMs for conversion in either direction, as the client only does one at a time doesn't it?
The alternative would be to store backup VMs from ESXi servers as Workstation 7 VMs, using the new converter. This however messes with the VMX files. A four vCPU Windows XP VM would have itself downgraded to two vCPUs. So the backup would not a reliable, as it would become necessary to remember which machines need to have their vCPU number increased again on being restored.
So why not use the v4.0.1 converter as we have been? Well that's OK I suppose, but you have to be careful because the OVA specification used is outdated, and doesn't support the larger VMs (Over 8GB) in OVA format, which would be preferable to OVF format. Also the release note for v4.3 says it is now compatible with 4.1 hosts, which suggests that the v4.0.1 converter will be or is unsupported where 4.1 hosts are used, like ours.
Is there a recommended way for backing ESXi 4.1 hosted guests to a NTFS volume, that:
(1) Maintains a 'thin' image file, so space and network bandwidth aren't wasted.
(2) Offers import export of OVA/OVFs.
(3) Can be scripted or natively queues multiple VM conversions or jobs.
