How to do P2V?

Also, you can refer to this great article written by VMware expert hanccocka.

HOW TO:  P2V, V2V for FREE - VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0 by hanccocka
https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/A_10301-HOW-TO-P2V-V2V-VMware-vCenter-Converter-Standalone-5-0.html

@hancoccka...He said he was on 4.1...It wasn't retired with that version.  The user doesn't make mention he's upgrading or else the latest version would have been my recommendation.

I started using the P2V standalone converter. But it's stuck at 1%.

The server I'm doing is a physical machine. It's not on a domain.

The datacentre server on the Esxi host I'm moving it onto is not a Vcenter server. When I log onto the Vcenter server (which is located in another site; they're connected via MPLS network), it shows the Vm created on the datacentre Esxi host, so it may not even be permission related. I can't figure it out.

Any ideas?

Hi Yashy,

Is the server you're converting located on the same network/subnet as your destination ESXi host?

I'm just trying to make sense of what you mean by "located in another site; they're connected via MPLS network".

If that's the case ,if the server you're converting is in one site and the destination host is in another, this will take a looooong time or just eventually error out.

I've always done P2V conversions locally (same network)

did you install VMware Converter on the server to convert?

at 1% it's not even started the disk copy, it's creating the target virtual machine (VM).

Personally, I would create a local copy to a VMware Workstation, and then "move the files to the destination site, and "Re-Import" using Convertor, locally at the Site.

I agree with converting to a local Workstation install.  At 8-10MB/sec, Converter would fill up a good deal of an 100Mbps MPLS connection.  If there's a failure, you've wasted the bandwidth.  Put Workstation on a laptop (gigabit NIC) on the same switch as the source server.  Or, use an USB 3.0 drive on the Workstation machine.  That's even smaller, and can be sent to the datacenter via driver, courier, FedEx, etc.

Instead of using Converter again at the datacenter, why not use vSphere client to browse the target datastore, and copy the files up to the host's storage?  Then add the vm to inventory.

Converter is very slow compared to a file transfer.

Fellas, thank you for your input.

I've decided to do a local install on the machine.  Yet, it's taking forever. It's only around 100gb of data. Yet, it has been going on for a few hours and only at 3% at the moment. It's telling me it has 1 day until completion.

The IP address I am doing this from is on a 192.168.40.0 range. The Esxi host it is going on to is on a 128.1.1.0 range. They can talk to each other. I just wonder whether there's a switch issue or network problem connectivity problem?

This very server did have a failure yesterday on disk; i.e. after a reboot it wasn't bootable again. We took the hot swappable disks out and back in. Worked. So I don't know if it's having problems reading from the data blocks on the disk?

Hancoccka - you think I should go ahead and make the changes you mentioned in your article about turning off SSL encryption?

Thank you
Yash

if you turn off encryption it will be much faster!

I would still recommend the P2V to a local file.

Did it. Worked:). Now...next post as to why it's not powering up:)