How can I virtualize a Unix machine using VMware?

virtualization unix convert vmware-converter

14,742

Solution 1

The product you need is called VMWare Converter. You will be after the Standalone version. The documentation for it can be found here.

Basically, the VMWare Converter will take the existing physical Unix machine and convert it into a VMWare format. This VMWare image can then be loaded into whichever VMWare host you choose.

Solution 2

Although I prefer the VMWare Converter answer, you could probably also do it using Clonezilla. Just be careful to create a VMWare image that has a virtual hard drive that is the same size or bigger than the original. Also, keep in mind that when the virtual machine starts up its going to detect totally different hardware and so you might have an issue with X-windows, network connectivity, etc. that you will need to work around.

14,742

Alex

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Alex over 1 year

I have a computer with a Unix OS installed on it. I want to convert this computer to a virtual machine so that I can run it on another computer with VMware workstation.
- Maximus Minimus over 14 years
  
  Plz send codez!!!!11!!one
- MrGigu over 14 years
  
  Hardly. I think this is a real question. Do you want them to pad it with three paragraphs of irrelevant back story?
- Maximus Minimus over 14 years
  
  At least some indication of what was tried and what went wrong would be nice.
- Scott Markwell over 14 years
  
  Alex: Please be more descriptive. It looks like you are asking how to convert an existing install to a vmware image, but we have no idea what kind of existing install. Bare metal? Xen? Another VM system?
- Xorlev over 14 years
  
  Are these on the same machine? If so, it's simple, if not it's still simple but not -as- simple.
- Alex over 14 years
  
  I didn't try any thing cause its Unix! no, they not on the same machine. How do i do it?
- John Gardeniers over 14 years
  
  I think it would be more beneficial to visit the VMWare site and obtain the appropriate tools and information from them. After all, they seem to know something about this stuff.
- Maximus Minimus over 14 years
  
  Yeah, it's a very broad and open question, and would require describing the process in some detail from beginning to end. Better to consult some documentation first, give it a try, and come back to us with any specific difficulties you might hit. We can be more useful to you that way.
- Alex over 14 years
  
  I tried to find the solution their but unfortunately i didn't find anything
- Maximus Minimus over 14 years
  
  Please try harder. This is a solved problem. Other people have already done this many many times. Start here: google.com/…
- MrGigu over 14 years
  
  SO/F/U is not the place to be answering with "Google It" links. The idea is that when people google it brings them here.
Alex over 14 years

can I install it on unix? does it support unix?
djangofan over 14 years

this sounds like the way to go for me.
MrGigu over 14 years

Hi Alex, please read the documentation. "Unix" isn't a good enough description. Is it FreeBSD? AIX? AT&T System V?
Xsv23 about 11 years

Note that you can must have an ESXi / vSphere Hypervisor system for a target when converting a Linux system with VMware Converter. You cannot just create the files needed by VMware Workstation / Player directly.