Does VMWare Converter Work?
VMware Converter is supposed to (according to its data sheet) be able to convert Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 VHD images into VMware format disk images. But, it didn't do anything except generate error messages for me. I first tried to convert a CentOS 4.4 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 community rebuild). VMware Converter reported that the file was corrupted despite the fact that I had just used it a few minutes earlier before shutting it down for the conversion attempt. I next tried a Windows Server 2003 virtual machine. This time, VMware Converter reported that it couldn't identify the Guest Operating System Type. Yeah, ok, sure. So, has this thing worked at all for anyone?
For the record, I tried this on a notebook PC running Windows Vista Business Edition. It has 2GB RAM and plenty of free disk space.
UPDATE: I moved over to an XP PC. VMware Converter still refused to work with the CentOS 4.4 VHD file. However, it seems to be working with the Windows Server 2003 R2 VHD file.
I need perform a P2V of a
I need perform a P2V of a CentOS Enterprise 5 server-- can you help guide me through this?
I have a dedicated server running CentOS Enterprise 5 with Apache-WHM-MySQL that I want to turn in to a virtual server. I need to back up the current installation to my hard drive as an image, install VMware on the dedicated machine, and then import the old CentOS system to run it as a virtual machine on the new VMware server.
I'm lost. I don't know where to start. As you can see I have the general idea but I don't know what tools to use or how to use them...
Try installing MSXML 4.0
Try installing MSXML 4.0 (how strange it might sound).
I found this solution after extensively researching the log files created by VMWare converter.
Thanks for this. I was able
Thanks for this.
I was able to run VMware Converter on a Windows XP virtual machine running on a Mac under VMware Fusion. VMware Converter only seems to work if the .VPC file and the .VHD file are in the same directory, but not necessarily in the same place as VMware Converter. It creates a .vmx file and a .vmdk file, which you can then copy over to your host machine to create a new virtual machine under Fusion.
I've used this to create multiple Windows installations in order to test different flavours of IE on a Mac, using Microsoft's Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en
Daniel's solution worked for
Daniel's solution worked for me. I moved the vmc file into the same directory as the vhd file, and it took off. I do wish this converter was available to run in linux though, as I'm running the converter inside a virtual machine of Windows XP, and it may take a while (yay, just went up to 2%). I didn't have to edit the vmc file.
It works - the error is that
It works - the error is that the VHD is not found. However, it seems that the folks at vmWare didn't code their converter properly and (looking through the logs, etc.), if the VHD isn't found in the path, it generates the VHD not found error you are having (which is why is can't determine the guest OS - because it can't locate the VHD when it is trying to open it). I tried a number of path, long-file name, etc. to trace it down and make the converter happy and nothing helped. However, the solution is...
...You have to copy both the VHD and VMC files into the directory where you installed vmWare Converter. Also, edit the VMC file with something like NOTEPAD and remove all references of path information for your VHD files (ie, change C:\Temp\WinXP.VHD to WinXP.VHD). Then the vmWare Converter 3.x will be happy again and it should work.
Good luck...
Dan
Had the same problem. I have
Had the same problem. I have a Windows XP VPC2007 image and I was unable to convert it to the new VMWare 6.0. Total crap if you ask me. I do not expect it to convert something like Vista, but WindowsXP should be easy enough.
The converter was unable to
The converter was unable to figure out the operating system that exists within the image so it could offer the sysprep and driver options. The converter does not support Vista
You can use the "VMWare Virtual Machine Importer" tool to bring the image over as is. You'll need to run on the image before converting it or you'll be stuck with a VM that won't boot due to driver issues.
Go to Help in VMware
Go to Help in VMware Converter and look at Application Requirements, which confirms what you have experienced. For a deeper analysis, check out the Forums@ www.vmware.com/community.