Using BESR 2010 and vCenter to P2V

[Sango]

Hi,

Due to some reasons, our client need to use a third party software to do the conversion. Since they are using Backup Exec already, so we recommend Symantec BESR. So what we wanted to do is to convert the server to virtual using BESR, bring the BESR image over to DR site and use vCenter to convert it to vmdk. 

I would like to know have anyone use Symantec BESR 2010  to do a conversion from physical to virtual? In vCenter documentation, the supported BESR version is only Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 6.5, 7.0 (.sv2i). These two versions are pretty old.

So may I know can we still safely use BESR 2010 with vCenter for the conversion?

 Thanks.

[criley]

With BESR 2010 you can convert directly to ESX or convert to standalone VMDK (VMware Server/Workstation format).

Is there a reason why you cannot use BESR to convert directly to ESX?

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[Sango]

Can I convert directly the physical server to ESX vmdk format without an ESX server on site? The reason for doing so is because there is no ESX server at the production site. Only the DR site has an ESX server.

In the BESR 2010 manual, I did not see any section that I can convert a physical server to vmdk format without any ESX server on site. Maybe I have overlook it.

Thanks.

[criley · Accepted solution]

No, you must have an ESX server available in order to convert directly to it.

One option for you is to convert to VMDK and then use VMKFSTOOLS to convert/import into ESX in the correct format. More information here:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/292971

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[Sango]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your answers. I believe they helps.