Virtuozity

Did you know that meanwhile vConverter supports a lot of different image formats for import? Right now you can choose from:

• VMware Workstation (*.vmx, *.vmtn)
• VMware Consolidated Backup (*.vmx)
• Microsoft Virtual PC / Virtual Server (*.vmc)
• Symantec Backup Exec (*.sv2i)
• StorageCraft ShadowProtect Files (*.spf)
• Acronis True Image (*.tib)

Especially the last one is good news to me, because True Image is one of my favorites. Very flexible and reliable solution, only the server licenses became pretty high priced in the last years.

When you try to import a machine via vCenter you might get an unknown error. If you look into the log file, you will find some SSL issues and an entry like this:

[2009-02-18 10:33:59.002 'P2V' 3792 error] [task,301] Task failed: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)

This problem occurs commonly in European environments and is caused by the use of Umlaute, which are quite often used in the German language. The result is the "invalid token" message. Please remove all Umlaute from all VMs in vCenter (VM Names, Folders, Notes, etc.).

VMware has released an update of their P2V product vConverter. The new version vConverter 4 is now capable of virtualizing Windows Server 2008 and even Linux boxes, which is great news. If you are an enterprise customer, you will receive the update via vCenter because like the predecessor the product is fully integrated as a vCenter plugin.

After installing and activating the plugin you will find a new entry called "Import Machine" in the context menu in most views of vCenter. You can also create a scheduled task to start converting at any time you like.