Convert Physical to Virtual or Virtual to Virtual with VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.3

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone was pulled from the VMware website awhile back and had not been updated in a long time. In fall 2022 a new version was released to beta and eventually a general release was made available in October 2022. Details can be found here:
https://blogs.vmware.com/code/2022/10/12/announcing-general-availability-of-the-vcenter-converter-6-3/

This new release provides compatibility with vSphere 7.0 as well as numerous other hypervisors and operating systems. This new version can be installed on the following operating systems:

• Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2022
• Windows 8.1, 10, and 11

This application can be used to migrate from the following fully supported guest operating systems:

• Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2022
• Windows 8.1, 10, and 11
• CentOS 6.x, 7.x
• Red Hat Enterprise 6.x, 7.x
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS

Please note that although these are the supported versions, a lot of older versions of OS’s can successfully be migrated using this utility. This is important to note as one of the big use cases is to migrate legacy environments into a new vCenter environment if an upgrade cannot be completed to a more recent Server OS.

Converting a VM using VMware vCenter Converter

1. Download and install the latest vCenter on a Windows computer. It is important to note that this computer will function as the orchestrator to perform the migration. You will want to make sure the computer can remain online during the entire process of the migration. Although it will likely complete a V2V migration without it, you will need this to monitor the progress.
2. Compute the local installation setup of the converter software.
3. Open VMware vCenter Converter for the first time and create a new machine conversion by navigating to: File -> New -> Convert Machine
4. From the Source Type, select either a VMware Infrastructure (vCenter or ESXi Host) or Hyper-V Server.
5. Under the server details, enter the VMware or Hyper-V server details along with administrative user and password credentials. This will attempt to connect to the server and populate the inventory.
6. Select the VM that will be converted from the list. It will take some time to populate all attributes of the VM.
7. In the destination type, select your destination VMware Infrastructure (vCenter or ESXi Host)
8. Enter the server details with an administrative user and password credential.
9. There will be a list of settings that can be reviewed for this migration. It is important to review a few items including checking the ‘Disk’ settings to see if you want Thin or Thick provisioned disks.
10. Additionally, check the advanced settings and select the appropriate VMware Hardware Level (for Hyper-V it is recommend to use a lower VMware Hardware version like v.14). Also, you can select the option to ‘Install VMware Tools on the destination virtual machine’.
11. Click on Convert and you will see the job running in the monitoring page.
12. Once completed, navigate to the vCenter/ESXi host with this new VM and power it on. Review the screen to ensure there are no errors and the server comes up successfully.
13. Validate network settings that need to be changed/updated as well as NTP settings to ensure it is synchronized correctly.