How to Import a remote computer as a virtual machine - VMWare Workstation

You need to go to the VMware site and download the VMware Converter tool. From there you do a Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion of the Physical machine. VMware has to create a new VM with appropriate hardware for the machine you are converting. ... Thinkpads_User

Hey, thanks for the reply.
Do you have a direct link to this convertor tools?
I have installed VM Workstation with all tools, so I assumed that I should not do this.
Why is there an option for making a virtual machine from a remote computer,
if you require extra tools for that?
It sounds a bit weird. (not saying that you are not right, by the way, just that it sounds weird)

Here is a link to the converter application:
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vcenter_converter_standalone/4_0

You want the VMware Vcenter Converter Standalone from this link.

I see the import option in Workstation 7 to import a Virtual Machine from a remote source. I have not used that, and I think it is relatively new, and I have not used it, so cannot comment on that one. Did you map a folder connection to the remote machine before trying to import it? That may assist.

VMware Converter may provide some functionality you need as it is a separate application.
... Thinkpads_User

OK - I looked in the manual. VMware Converter has been incorporated into VMware Workstation V7, so it is new. That answers that issue.

In that Manual, page 136, it gives the requirement for logging on to the remote machine. You need to make sure that the two machines (remote and client) are business operating systems that have userid and password login requirements. Check the manual and check the permissions/login requirements of your computers. ... Thinkpads_User

Hey, I appreciate your input, but it is a bit too vague for my problem

Well, I should have given some more info at the start
- I did look into the manual prior to posting (of course), page 136 does not give any detailed information. It just says something about the logins, advice I followed, nothing fancy there, nothing you can't derive from
- both the XP SP2 and the XP SP3 are XP professional licenses. The SP2 is in Dutch, the SP3 is in English
- I switched off firewall and Kaspersli virus scan on the remote machine
- I tried sharing all drives in the remote machine

Now lets get back to the original question.
I clearly stated I was dealing with Workstation 7.0.0, so I don't need all these convertor stuff you mentioned

I did some more tests, and I made little progress after I decided to pass in the IP adress of the remote machine
I managed to get further down the chain, but failed to start the convertor agent on the remote machine

[2010-04-11 21:48:14.687 'ClientConnection' 5752 warning] Failed to startup VMware Converter Agent service on 172.16.30.21. Reason: Service control manager error.
[2010-04-11 21:48:14.687 'ClientConnection' 5752 warning] Unable to start ufad-ws60 service
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'ClientConnection' 5752 error] Giving up trying to connect to \\172.16.30.21\pipe\vmware-ufad-ws60-beta3-vmdb
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'VmdbSvc' 5752 verbose] Shutting down VMDB service...
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'VmdbSvc' 5752 verbose] Unregistering callback...
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'VmdbSvc' 5752 verbose] ...done
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'P2V' 5752 error] [task,295] Task failed: P2VError UFA_NOT_RUNNING()
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'P2V' 5752 verbose] [task,339] Transition from InProgress to Failure requested
[2010-04-11 21:48:17.687 'P2V' 5752 verbose] [task,388] Transition succeeded
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.515 'P2V' 4796 info] [installAgentTask,79] Installing UFAD to hostname=172.16.30.21, username=172.16.30.21\Geert, postponeReboot=1, verifySSLCerts=0
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.515 'P2V' 4512 verbose] [task,339] Transition from None to InProgress requested
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.515 'P2V' 4512 verbose] [task,388] Transition succeeded
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.515 'P2V' 4512 info] [task,274] Starting execution of a Task
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.515 'P2V' 4512 info] [clientConnection,101] Connecting to ADMIN$ on 172.16.30.21 as 172.16.30.21\Geert
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.546 'P2V' 4512 info] [,0] SMB manager: Access denied connecting to share [\\172.16.30.21\ADMIN$].

[2010-04-11 21:48:20.546 'P2V' 4512 error] [task,295] Task failed: P2VError REMOTE_UFA_BAD_PERMISSIONS(172.16.30.21)
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.546 'P2V' 4512 verbose] [task,339] Transition from InProgress to Failure requested
[2010-04-11 21:48:20.546 'P2V' 4512 verbose] [task,388] Transition succeeded
[2010-04-11 21:48:28.531 'P2V' 4796 info] [p2vSupport,267] Shutting down App

There is more there, but it seems that my logon (which has administrative rights) is not allowed to conect to $ADMIN

I do not know why the errors are occuring. Is it feasible (are the two machines close enough together) that you could connect the hard drive of the remote machine to the client machine by a USB carrier? Then it is a local situation instead of remote.  ... Thinkpads_User

One of my earlier posts asked about mapping folders, so I assume simple file sharing had been disabled. Still worth checking. ... Thinkpads_User