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VSphere virtual machine migration tools: vCenter converter

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The vCenter Converter is just one of the many virtual machine migration tools that can help solutions providers when they are migrating vSphere virtual machines from Hyper-V or XenServer. Deciphering exactly which tools are best for the process and how they are used can be a cumbersome task.

Our virtualization expert Eric Siebert examines the vCenter Converter, outlines the necessary conversion processes for virtual machine migration and compares the Standalone and Enterprise versions. Follow these steps before and after migration to make sure your customers' virtual machines (VMs) are in the best possible state for conversions.

Listen to Eric Siebert answer other frequently asked questions about virtual machine migration to vSphere in this FAQ podcast or read a transcribed version.

What are the virtual machine migration tools that solutions providers can use to migrate Hyper-V or XenServer virtual machines to vSphere
When using VMware Converter for virtual machine migration, what is the difference between the Standalone and Enterprise versions?
During a virtual machine migration, what should solutions providers know about the conversion process used by VMware Converter?
What are some virtual machine migration best practices when converting Hyper-V or XenServer VMs to vSphere?
More resources on virtual machine migration and vSphere virtual machines
About the expert

What are the virtual machine migration tools that solutions providers can use to migrate Hyper-V or XenServer VMs to vSphere?

There are a number of methods and tools that are used to migrate existing Hyper-V or XenServer VMs to vSphere. The most popular choice is the free application from VMware called vCenter Converter, which is a robust application that can perform both physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) conversions.

VCenter Converter comes in two editions: the vCenter Converter Standalone edition, which is a free application available on its own, and an Enterprise edition, which is included with vCenter Server. Additionally, there are several third-party P2V and V2V applications that offer more features, such as Vizioncore vConverter and PlateSpin Migrate. You can also use third-party imaging tools, such as Acronis Backup and Recovery and Symantec LiveState Recovery, which create an image file that you can import into vCenter Converter.

When using VMware Converter for virtual machine migration, what is the difference between the Standalone and Enterprise versions?

VCenter Converter Standalone is an application that installs on Windows machines. Enterprise is integrated into the vSphere client and is available as a plug-in to vCenter Server. The main differences between the two are the following:

During a virtual machine migration, what should solutions providers know about the conversion process used by vCenter Converter?

There are several different methods solutions providers can use to convert an existing Hyper-V or Xen Server VM to vSphere, but the easiest way is to treat the VM as a physical server and have vCenter Converter work through the operating system (OS) layer instead of the virtualization layer. For Windows VMs, this involves using a special Converter agent that is installed on the VM.

Converter consists of two components: a manager (server) and an agent (client). You can install both directly on the VM, or the manager can be installed on a separate workstation and the agent installed on the VM. Once Converter is launched, you choose a source and destination. The source is the VM that you want to convert, and the destination is either a drive mapping, an ESX or ESXi host or vCenter Server.

Once the conversion process begins, the VM is first quiesced using the Microsoft Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) driver, which tells the OS to write any pending disk operations. Then, a block or file copy of the VM is made to the selected destination. A block-level copy is done if you chose not to resize the destination VM's disk or if you chose to resize it larger. A file-level copy is performed if you chose to make the disk smaller. Once the conversion process completes, you will have a newly created vSphere VM on whichever destination you chose.

What are some virtual machine migration best practices when converting Hyper-V or XenServer VMs to vSphere?

Whenever converting a physical or virtual machine, you want to be careful that the VM comes over in working state with no corruption or missing files. There are a number of pre-conversion and post-conversion steps that you can take to ensure this:

More resources on virtual machine migration and vSphere virtual machines:

Four rules for virtual machine migration

virtualization best practices to accelerate virtual machine migration

Creating a virtual machine and VM configuration in VMware vSphere

VMware virtual machines in vSphere: Options and hardware

Xen vs. KVM and KVM migration guide

About the expert
Eric Siebert is a 25-year IT veteran whose primary focus is VMware virtualization and Windows server administration. He is one of the 300 vExperts named by VMware for 2009. He is the author of the book VI3 Implementation and Administration and a frequent TechTarget contributor. In addition, he maintains vSphere-land.com, a VMware information site.

22 Mar 2010

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