P2V Tips you already know but might have forgotten

Haven’t P2V’d a server in a while?  That’s because your environment is likely 90% virtual and 100% of your new machines are built as Virtual Machines.  Completely understandable to be a little rusty on the Physical to Virtual Processes…  Here are some helpful tips to shake the rust off and tackle those pesky remaining P2Vs.

1. Double check TCP ports 902, 9089 and 443 are open between target, source and vCenter.  Especially important if one of your targets is in a DMZ.  Verify firewall ports here : KB Article.
2. Even if you are specifying IP addresses in the conversion process, make sure to check that the target can resolve the appropriate DNS entries for vCenter and target ESX hosts for proper communication.  If your source machines are not part of a domain, hosts files are the way to go.
3. Take the opportunity to right size and clean up the target VM.  For some tips on post P2V clean up strategies, check out http://vcloudinfo.com/2008/10/post-p2v-batch-file-information-to.html and http://vcloudinfo.com/2008/11/post-p2v-batch-file-information-to.html.

So go ahead and head into your datacenters and stalk those last beige boxes in your environment and take them down. 🙂