Convert a Machine

This information describes how to create a conversion task to convert physical machines (using local or remote hot cloning), virtual machines, virtual appliances, and third-party system images into a variety of destinations. The approach you take for creating your virtual machine is determined by the type of source and the type of destination you select.

Source type

A powered-on physical or virtual machine, a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine (running on ESX host), a virtual appliance, or a standalone virtual machine.

Standalone virtual machines include VMware virtual machines, backup images, and third-party virtual machines such as VMware Workstation, VMware Server, VCB, Acronis True Image 9, Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server, Symantec Backup Exec Server Recovery (formerly known as LiveState Recovery), LiveState Recovery, StorageCraft, Parallels Desktop for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, Parallels Workstation, and Norton Ghost (only .sv2i) images.

Table 1 contains a full list of supported source types and product versions.

Destination type

ESX host, ESX host that vCenter Server manages, a virtual appliance, or a VMware standalone virtual machine.

Table 2 contains a full list of supported destination types and product versions.

Procedure

1	Select a Source to Convert

The Conversion wizard has several source options from which you can select the type of machine to convert.

2	Select a Destination for the New Virtual Machine

A newly created virtual machine must have a destination to be stored in. When you set up a conversion task, you must select a destination.

3	View Setup Options for a New Virtual Machine

Depending on the selected source machine and destination type, the View/Edit Options page provides setup options for the destination virtual machine or virtual appliance.

4	View the Summary of a Conversion Task

On the Ready to Complete page, you can view a summary of the new conversion task before you add it to the task list.