VMware Converter Standalone Linux

Question

I'm trying to convert my physical linux box to a virtual machine. I downloaded and installed VMware Converter 4.0.1, installed with all of the defaults. I launch VMware Converter Standalone and specify the source machine info by it's LAN IP address, which works fine. Then it takes me to the Destination tab where it specifies the Destination Type as VMware Infrastructure virtual machine, then includes boxes to enter the VMware Infrastructure server details.

I don't have any of those destinations available, but from reading the documentation available, it seems like I should be able to select a different destination, yet I'm not able. Am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

I forget, but is "host/resource" at the top clickable as an option for a destination?

EDIT: possibly bad news. According to page 42 of the manual (found here) a linux physical to virtual conversion only supports VMWare infrastructure products, so it appears that with the newer versions of the converter you may need to consider an alternative route for virtualizing the system.

I don't know if you can remotely convert the system as I vaguely recall the Windows converter allowed, or you might be able to set up a spare system that supports ESXi as a temporary holding machine for a virtual image that you can then transfer over to another server (ESXi is free, just the hardware support is a PITA if you didn't already have a system ready to go for it on their compatibility list).

Answer 2

If you're still looking for a way to do this:

When I did exactly this and ran into the same problem, I took an image of the machine using dd (or you could use some other cloning tool like Clonezilla or Ghost) them make a blank virtual machine using VMware workstation (or what ever virtulisational tool you're using) with a virtual HDD the sime size as the phisical one. Start the blank virtual machine using a live CD ISO, and write the image onto the blank disk.

Most Linux distros will just recognise the the virtulised hardware and work as soon as you start them (you might need to modify /etc/fstab if it uses UUIDs to identify its disks though.)

I've used this method several times to copy machines of various sorts (this works with Windows 98 and the corporate version of XP - sometimes) both to and from virtual environments.