V M D I S A S T E R R E C O V E R Y A N D S E R V E R C O N S O L I D AT I O N

vConverter
™

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the standalone vConverter the same product or related to the Is there intelligence in the disk resizing?
free VMware® Converter? Yes, vConverter will not allow you to shrink a partition to a smaller size
No. That is a completely separate product offered by VMware Inc. than allowed by the amount of data in the source system. We use a
vConverter is offered by Vizioncore. There is no shared code base, no simple algorithm to calculate minimal allowed disk size after resizing.
affiliation or any similarity in code with VMware’s product. vConverter is a We reserve extra disk space (~7%) over the occupied disk space to make
fast, easy and reliable P2V and V2V converter suitable for medium to sure that our resize operation will succeed. The NTFS file table area is not
large server consolidation projects, and disaster recovery protection of displayed as occupied disk space, but really it is occupied. We get
physical servers. the minimal possible volume size after resizing.

Does vConverter 4.2 support Vmware vSphere4? Does vConverter support Xen 5.0?
Yes, vConverter 4.2 fully supports VMware vSphere 4 as of July 9, 2009. Yes. vConverter 4.2 supports Xen 5.0 as well as 4.1.

Does vConverter 4.2 support VI3.5? How does vConverter "discover" physical boxes and their
information (disk, cpu,etc.)?
Yes.
We use standard Windows APIs to enumerate network resources, walk
Can vConverter convert Domain Controllers? through and perform lookups for computer resources.

Yes, vConverter can convert Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 Are there options to cleanup hardware-associated software
Domain Controllers. after the server is virtualized (such as HP Array Manager …)?
What facility is used on the Windows source for the agentless vConverter has the ability to:
conversions? a) Disable any selection of services that may be controlling hardware
b) Remove installed applications such as HP Insight, IBM Direct and
vConverter utilizes IPC (inter process communication) on Source servers Dell OpenManager agents
and remotely controls a Source with administrative credentials entered c) Inject scripts, dependent applications (.exe), etc., that you may
into vConverter by the user which sets up a runtime Windows service want to use which will auto run on first boot to perform additional
that allows us to run our highly optimized conversion software. activities

Do you have problems with dynamic disks? What is the maximum amount of machines that can get in the
vConverter does not have any problem with dynamic or encrypted queue for conversion at one time?
volumes. There is no limit as to how many jobs you may queue, but we recom-
mend that you set the proper values on the “Conversion Options” tab
Do you at any stage input credentials for the source server and under preferences to minimize the number of concurrent jobs to
target? a single target host.

When configuring any conversion job, you must have the necessary How many P2Vs can you run simultaneously?
Administrative credentials for a source server. These credentials can be
stored in “User Profiles” within vConverter to avoid repetitive typing tasks This depends on the available workload and number of target ESX
which can be especially useful for converting lots of systems. The Servers. If using “swing servers” to convert data, the number will be
credentials are encrypted using the ProtectedData Class from the significantly higher. Additionally, the more targets available for
Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/ conversion, the more that can be performed without impacting the
library/system.security.cryptography.protecteddata(VS.80).aspx) performance of other conversions and running virtual infrastructure
mechanism on the client workstation to ensure there is no danger of workload.
lost or stolen credentials. If your target is a network shared folder, and
the target uses the same credentials as the source, you will not have to
type additional credentials. However, if the target requires different
credentials (workgroup, machine or different domain), there is a facility
to enter those.

Continued
 Continued

In your experience what has the impact on the source system Any tips for a target server that may just be a file share (e.g. not
CPU and RAM when transferring been? ESX or Xen – just a UNC path)?
vConverter was written with performance in mind and was written to be • It is not necessary for the target server to be located in the same
small and lightweight. There is a very small CPU and memory footprint domain as the source server.
on both the source physical system and target ESX host during a • The target server may be a member of a workgroup or a domain
conversion. During a conversion the client application (vcclient.exe) will member.
use from 30MB to 100MB RAM and will utilize between 3% and 11% of • If your target server has different credentials than the source server
CPU. The source server capture application (vcct.exe) will use around you must specify those in the advanced dialog by clicking “Set
60MB RAM and will utilize up to 30% of CPU. Login.” In this way you can utilize a completely locked down target
or share. Note: Proper knowledge of share and NTFS level security is
How is the product licensed? Is it per conversion? Time-limited? required.
The SC (server consolidation) edition is licensed by the conversion. The
DR (disaster recovery) edition is licensed by the server.

What is the licensing model (are licenses burned after successful

migration and/or is there a central licensing server for multiple
vConverter instances)?
License use: After each successful conversion (determined by ‘exit
code=0’ in the absolute final step of the conversion process), the number
of available conversions will be decremented. Unsuccessful or cancelled
conversions do not decrement licensing.
Licensing: vConverter has a downstream licensing metaphor which
allows centralized use and management of just one serial number. E.g. if
you have 1,000 servers to migrate you may purchase a single serial
number then distribute the executable for vConverter to a large number
of workstations. These downstream workstations would activate their
installation with the central (original) system that originally activated
with Vizioncore.

How do you use vConverter with a Firewall/Windows Firewall?

Are you using Windows firewall on your vConverter client? If so you must
disable it or enable DCOM for the firewall, as described in:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/enus/dndco
m/html/msdn_dcomfirewall.asp

It is recommended that during conversion you turn off the firewall on the /
source system. If this solution is not applicable to you – allow RPC calls to
that machine. Do the following on the source system:
Step 1: Add a key
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Rpc\Internet” to the
registry.
Step 2: Add the following parameters to it:
“Ports” (REG_MULTI_SZ). Specify a range of ports used for RPC
connections, e.g. “5000-100”.
“PortsInternetAvailable” (REG_SZ). Value – “Y”.
“UseInternetPorts” (REG_SZ). Value – “Y”.
Step 3: Add these ports to your firewall exception list.
Step 4: Enable port 135

For more information about vConverter, or any of our products, please contact
[email protected], call our support hotline at 866-260-2483 or visit our website
at www.vizioncore.com.
2 3 0 0 B a r r i n g t o n R o a d , S u i t e 7 0 0 , H o ff m a n E s t a t e s , I L 6 0 1 6 9