Physical-to-Virtual (VMware vCenter) backup set
Creation Date: August 28, 2012
Revision Date: October 16, 2018
Product: DS‑Client & Local DS-VDR Tool
Summary
This article provides additional information about the Physical-to-Virtual backup set type. This backup set type allows you to ‘backup’ a physical machine to a VMware virtual machine.
NOTE: A Physical-to-Virtual backup set does not backup data to DS-System.
Physical-to-Virtual requirements
The following requirements must be met to create Physical to Virtual backup sets:
• DS-Client must be configured with the Local DS-VDR Tool feature and be pointing to a running instance of the tool (Local DS-VDR > Configure Local DS-VDR Tool).
• Install the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone on the Local DS-VDR Tool computer. This plug-in can be found at the VMware website.
• Run the installation and select Client-Server installation (advanced) Setup Type. The plug-in has three components:
• A server that must be installed on the Local DS-VDR machine.
• A client that is optional and allows a user to monitor P2V processes.
• An agent that is pushed (by the server component) to the actual target physical machine that is to be converted.
NOTE: This agent is ‘pushed’ to the target physical machine at the time the backup set is created (after you select the target server in the New Backup Set Wizard). If you encounter a popup error that indicates the agent installation has not completed, that target machine probably does not support physical to virtual conversion. Do not try to continue with the P2V backup set if this occurs. (Also, if you uninstall this agent from the target machine, the physical to virtual conversion will not work. In this case, you must create a new P2V backup set on the target machine to ‘push’ the agent to the target again.)
• Make sure to export the physical machine to a datastore that has enough space.
• If you plan to convert a Linux physical machine, you must also perform the following:
• Enable SSH on the source Linux machine.
• Use the root account to convert a Linux powered-on machine.
• Make sure that the Converter Standalone server machine has network access to the source (physical) machine.
• Turn off firewall applications running on the source machine.
• Make sure that no other conversions job is using the source you select.
• To be able to convert multi-boot virtual machines, make sure to install GRUB as the boot loader. (LILO is not supported.)
• Have your network administrator assign a dedicated IP address that you can use for each Physical-to-Virtual backup set you create. This will be used in the IP / Netmask / Gateway for conversion helper VM fields for the backup set options.
Other details
For the list of operating systems that can be converted from physical to virtual, refer to the Installation and Support Matrix, which can be found on the Installation DVD (\Documentation\Release_Information).
Each physical machine that is protected will cost one Local DS-VDR license count.
The name of the exported virtual machine will contain the physical machine name or IP address and the backup timestamp, in the following format:
<physical machine name or IP address>_<timestamp>
NOTE: If Max. gen. is set to 1 for a Physical-to-Virtual backup set, the Local DS-VDR will disable this time stamp to allow the same name to be kept for Physical to Virtual Conversion. This way, the master/delta algorithm will apply on subsequent backups and DS-Client will be able to send only the changes that have been made to the source virtual machine since the previous backup.
During the physical to virtual conversion process, all the virtual disks are automatically created as ‘Thin’ disks to save space in the VMware ESXi host storage.
The Local DS-VDR tool can convert from physical machine directly to a VMware standalone ESXi host or VMware vCenter Server.
Converting from Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware vSphere
Using the Physical to Virtual Backup set type, you can convert powered-on Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines to VMware vSphere virtual machines.
Prerequisites:
• Make sure that the Windows version installed on the powered-on machine is supported by VMware.
• Make sure that the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone server machine has network access to the Windows source machine where the powered-on Hyper-V machine is running.
• Turn off firewall applications running on the source machine.
• Disable “simple file sharing” on the source Windows machine.
• Make sure that no other conversion jobs are using the source you have selected.
• Remove any VMware Converter 3.x installations manually from the source machine.
Troubleshooting: Linux physical machine has Xserver starting problem
Problem:
For Physical-to-Virtual backup sets of a Linux source physical machine, sometimes after converting to a virtual machine on the target VMware server, the virtualized machine has starting problems with its Xserver.
Solution:
Execute the following steps on the converted virtual machine:
1. Power on the virtual machine.
2. When you are prompted to reconfigure the Xserver, click “yes”.
3. Input the virtual machine’s root user password.
4. Auto-reboot and start the Xserver.