Can V2V converter connect direct to ESXi host?

rrbnc · Thu Dec 04, 2014 7:15 am

If V2V converter had the ability to connect directly to an ESXi host and convert a powered off VM (or even snapshot the VM and convert it while it's online!), that would make the converter MUCH more useful. As is, it takes FOREVER to power a VM off, copy the VMDK off to a Windows host, then run the conversion. That extra copy step is a real problem. It's hard to convince a customer we need to add an extra 4-8 hours of downtime while an offline VMDK gets copied, when we are already taking a server offline for half the night without the extra copy step. Plus vSphere client is SLOW copying VMDK over the network.

Fri Dec 05, 2014 4:23 pm

So technically you want StarWind to use data stores as a source and not a Windows-hosted images now? For NFS mount points that's doable but for VMFS that's an issue. OK, idea is interesting and I'm taking this off-line (please check your Inbox). Thank you!

rrbnc wrote:If V2V converter had the ability to connect directly to an ESXi host and convert a powered off VM (or even snapshot the VM and convert it while it's online!), that would make the converter MUCH more useful. As is, it takes FOREVER to power a VM off, copy the VMDK off to a Windows host, then run the conversion. That extra copy step is a real problem. It's hard to convince a customer we need to add an extra 4-8 hours of downtime while an offline VMDK gets copied, when we are already taking a server offline for half the night without the extra copy step. Plus vSphere client is SLOW copying VMDK over the network.