VMware vCenter Converter

VMware Converter Standalone is a powerful and useful application designed from the ground up to help you create VMware virtual machines from machines based on both Windows and Linux.

Not only does it offer support for VMware and Microsoft virtual machine formats, but it's also well-versed when it comes to dealing with third-party disk image formats.

The main benefits provided by this useful app are: centralized and simultaneous, large-scale conversions of physical servers and virtual machines, ensured conversion reliability through efficient snapshotting of the guest OS on the source machine, and support for hot cloning with practically no server downtime or the need for restart.

That said, working with VMware Converter Standalone is all about undergoing its intuitive wizards with four-steps each. As mentioned before, the machines you are allowed to convert range from physical machines, to VMware virtual machines (.vmx) and Hyper-V virtual machines.

From the File menu, you can opt to either convert or to configure a machine. The first choice requires you to pick between two source systems, either powered on or off. By going with the "Powered on" mode, you can choose between remote Windows machine and remote Linux machine, and type in the credentials in order to log in.

The Powered off mode allows you to pick from three source types: WMware Infrastructure virtual machine, WMWare Workstation or other VMware virtual machine, and Hyper-V Server. Of course, you are also required to input the login information and even pick the virtual machine file in the case of the second option.

To complete the process, you will have to pick the destination system and a few other options. The process ends with you being provided with a full summary view of all the changes and, as expected, configuring a machine can be dealt with just as easily and in a similar fashion.

Taking everything into account, VMware Converter Standalone is a relatively intuitive application that has the potential to make the lives of system administrators and developers alike a bit better by providing them with a straightforward, wizard-powered solution to automate the creation of VMware virtual machines from physical ones.