VMware Converter - Summary of Snapshot Errors and Fixes

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-6842

P2V tips

Physical to Virtual Conversion of Linux Servers with VMware Converter BootCD

http://www.petri.co.il/physical-to-virtual-conversion-of-linux-servers-with-vmware-converter-bootcd.htm

VMware Converter - P2V

Your conversion speed will vary depending on options you select during the conversion process.

VMware converter uses two types of “cloning” methods during the P2V process:

File level cloning : Performed when you make the volume smaller then original (slowest conversion speed)

Block level cloning : Performed when you maintain or make drives larger (fastest conversion speed)


If you need to see the conversion rate use the VMware Standalone. It will now report the conversion rate as well as conversion type it is using to get your data into the virtual environment.

On my last project conversion speed varied from 144GB/Hr (or 2.4GB/min block lvl copy) to 36GB/Hr (.6GB/min file lvl copy).

Eth0 disappears after cloning

When I used VMWare Cloning of Debian Gold image everything was OK except networking. Eth0 disappeared and Eth1 came up. It's due to MAC address persistent association in /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules. Solution is to avoid persistent association. If you open this file you'll see that old MAC address is associated with eth0 so you can change this MAC address. However, the easiest solution is just delete file /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules. File will be created after next reboot but with MAC address of current network card.