Difference bw Vmware Converter and Vcenter Converter

[syedd]

Hi,

i am new in vmware , i have red on internaet that there are two product for P2v and V2p

that is Vmware converter and Vmware Vcenter converter 4.3.0

i am confuse about the usage of both product , either both product are same or any difference.

pls help me

Regards

Syedd

[admin]

VMware Converter Standalone 4.3 is the latest version of the free standalone distribution of Converter.

VMware vCenter Converter 4.2 is the latest version of the "Converter for vCenter Server" which is shipped with vCenter Server 4.1.

The Users Guide for VMware Converter Standalone 4.3 is available at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/convsa_43_guide.pdf

The installation and Administration Guide for VMware vCenter Converter 4.2 is available at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_vcc_42_admin_guide.pdf

You can check out the differences for yourself by looking through both of these guides.

Regards,

Graham Daly

Knowledge Champion

VMware Inc.

[jaydub45]

VMware Converter and vCenter Converter are very similar.

VMware Converter is a standalone product that you can install on any Windows System, then run through the wizard and convert the local, or a remote, physical or virtual machine to a virtual machine hosted on an ESX Server. I really only use it in the few isolated networks I have that have a single ESX Server and no vCenter Server.

I primarily use vCenter Converter. This is almost exactly the same as VMware Converter, except that it's a plugin to vCenter. After you install it on the vCenter Server, you see it as a plugin on any client you run the vSphere Client from. Once installed on the client, it allows you to right-click any host, cluster, datacenter, etc and select "Import Machine". It presents you with the same wizard as seen in VMware Converter, but shows the progress as a Task in the Task Pane at the bottom of the vSphere Client window.

I've tried a few P2V's using VMware Converter 4.3, and it seems terribly slow. It takes over 4 hours for some servers. The vCenter Converter plugin is version 4.2, and when I use that to convert the same source machine it does it in less than half the time. VMware Converter 4.0 didn't have this issue, but I do see it with 4.3.

Hopefully this makes some sense and explains what they are.

[jaydub45]

Just to clarify, you mentioned "P2V" and "V2P" in your initial post.

Neither of these products will do V2P. The VMware Converter and vCenter Converter Products do both Physical to Virtual (P2V) and Virtual to Virtual (V2V). There are a few image formats they support as the source, such as VMware Workstation Image, Acronis True Image, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Image, etc, but they will not allow you to perform a Virtual to Physical (V2P).