Procedure

You can download, install, and run VMware vCenter Converter Standalone in English only. Users with limited rights cannot install Converter Standalone 5.1.1 on Windows. You must log in as an administrator to install Converter Standalone. Older VCenter Converter Standalone versions? From what I gather from the release notes of 6.0, it doesn't support Ubuntu 10.10 anymore, right? 5.5 only supports 10.10 LSV, so that leaves me with 5.0 ir 5.1. Converter Standalone SDK 5.1 supports Converter Standalone 5.1.1. The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone API provides language-neutral interfaces to the Converter Standalone server management framework. The Converter Standalone SDK is a ZIP file that contains the following items. Oct 07, 2008 Older VCenter Converter Standalone versions? From what I gather from the release notes of 6.0, it doesn't support Ubuntu 10.10 anymore, right? 5.5 only supports 10.10 LSV, so that leaves me with 5.0 ir 5.1.

1. Download the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_converter_standalone/5_5#product_downloads.

   Note The VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0 does not support vCenter Server and ESXi versions later than 5.0. Download and install a version later than 5.0.1.

2. After installation, open the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone and click Convert machine at the top left of the screen.
   The Conversion screen appears.

   VMware vCenter Converter Standalone

3. In the Source System section of the Conversion screen, configure the following:
   • Select source type: Select VMware Infrastructure virtual machine.
   • Server: Type the VMware server IP address.
   • User name, Password: Type the credentials that provide administrator access to the VMware server.
4. Click Next.
   The Source Machine section appears.

   Conversion > Source Machine

5. In the Source Machine section, select the virtual machine that you want to convert and click Next.
   The Destination System section appears.

   Conversion > Destination System

6. In the Destination System section, configure the following options and then click Next.
   • Select destination type: Choose VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual machine.
   • Select VMware product: Choose VMware Workstation 6.5.x.
   • Name, Location: Accept the default Virtual Machine name and location or click Browse to select a different file.
   The Options section appears.

   Conversion > Options

7. In the Options section, verify the image description for additional settings and then click Next.
   Ensure Install VMware Tools is set to No.
   The Summary section appears.

   Conversion > Summary

8. Verify the image information, and then click Finish.

Note: VMware Converter 5.0.1. is compatible with vSphere 5.1. See this updated blogpost on this issue.

After an (almost) succesful upgrade to vSphere 5.1, I had to convert a VMware Workstation virtual machine to VMware vSphere 5.1 using VMware Converter 5. After trying to connect to my freshly upgraded vCenter 5.1 server VMware Converter crashed with following error:

Exactly the same happens if you’re trying to connect directly to an ESXi 5.1 server.

Happily VMware published a KB article which addresses this issue. However, the solution…or workaround, is not too exiciting: Use an ESXi 5.0 host and connect this host to vCenter 5.1. Use the 5.0 host for the conversion and then migrate the virtual machine to an ESX 5.1 host for upgrading the virtual hardware etc.

This workaround will work, if you have not upgraded all your hosts or if have a spare host (and license) available. In my case all hosts are upgraded to 5.1, so I came up with the idea of the “VMware Converter Converter Virtual Appliance“…which is nothing more than a virtual machine that is running ESXi 5.0. Especially when you’re using iSCSI or NFS you can connect this host to your storage volumes very easily. Use the VMware Converter² Virtual Appliance as target server for VMware Converter and migrate virtual machines from this host to your 5.1 hosts.

Vmware Vcenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Download Windows 7

If you don’t have any licenses available you can also run a stand alone instance of ESXi. After the conversion process to the ESXi 5.0 is complete, de-register the virtual machine and re-register the virtual machine on a 5.1 host (the storage should be shared between the hosts).

Although this trick will work, I hope VMware will publish a solution as soon as possible. The KB article tells: “VMware is working on a solution to ensure that Converter Standalone is compatible with the latest versions of vSphere. For information about new releases and updates, visit VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Product Download Center.”

Vmware Vcenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Download Windows 10

Vmware Vcenter Converter Standalone 5.1 Download Free

More information on installing ESXi as a virtual machine is available here.

Update: It seems you can use VMware Converter 4.3 to convert to ESXi 5.1. More information in the KB article.