Migrate VMware server 1.0 VMs to ESX?

[Red Squirrel]

We have a win2k3 server box running a few VMware server 1.0 VMs that we want to migrate to our ESX cluster. I'm just wondering, can I just drop the whole files on the SAN and run them, or is there more to it then that? I've done "Drop in" migrations like this at home going from vmware server 1.0 to 2.0 and even 2.0 to VirtualBox, but I've never done migrations to ESX other then using P2V. In this case these VMs wont support P2V. One is running sco unix, the other windows NT4 (lol) and then Linux Mandrake.

The only issue I can forsee is that the vmdk files may not be 100% same format so ESX might still read them but perform less well. What I plan to do is just create new vmdk's and reimage, if the transplant idea even works.

 

[yinan]

As of Update 4 you can do P2V using VMware convert for Linux. I also have had limited success with converter and the converter boot cd.

You can't just dump them on the SAN because of internal differences in the vmdk files.

 

[MrChad]

The Converter utility should handle the format conversions for you.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

 

[BHeemsoth]

Originally posted by: MrChad
The Converter utility should handle the format conversions for you.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Yep, in our environment we set up a 2k3 box to run the converter and load the VM's into our SAN environment.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'll give that converter a try, thanks.

First, we need to fix the fact that we have like 5GB left on most of our luns. Our environment is such a mess and it takes forever for anything new to get implimented... too much politics in IT