VMware VCENTER CONVERTER EN-000158-02 - Manual (Page 15)

The following workflow demonstrates the principles of hot cloning physical machine sources that run Linux
to managed destinations.
1
The Converter Standalone agent uses SSH to connect to the source machine and retrieves source
information. The Converter Standalone agent creates an empty helper virtual machine based on your
conversion task settings. The helper virtual machine serves as a container for the new virtual machine
during conversion. The Converter Standalone agent deploys the helper virtual machine on the managed
destination, an ESX/ESXi host. The helper virtual machine boots from a
*.iso
file that is located on the
converter Standalone server machine.
vCenter Converter Standalone
agent and server
Converter Standalone
agent deploys helper
virtual machine
powered-on Linux
machine ESX/ESXi
source destination
network
Helper
VM
source
volumes
2 The helper virtual machine powers on, boots from the Linux image, and connects to the source machine
through SSH. Then it starts retrieving the selected data from the source. While you set up the conversion
task, you can select which source volumes to be copied to the destination machine.
vCenter Converter Standalone
agent and server
powered-on Linux
machine
data copied to the
helper virtual machine
ESX/ESXi
source destination
network
Helper
VM
source
volumes
3 Optionally, when data copying is complete, the target virtual machine is reconfigured to allow the
operating system to boot in a virtual machine.
4 The Converter Standalone agent shuts down the helper virtual machine. The conversion process is
complete.
Optionally, you can configure Converter Standalone to power on the newly created virtual machine after the
conversion is complete.
Chapter 1 Introduction
VMware, Inc. 15