UPDATE: Please read this article about the new Beta of VMware vCenter Converter! Yes, it is back!!
I tweeted about this yesterday, but as I had about 14 questions in 24 hours I figured I would do a blog post as well so that it gets indexed by Google properly. Many folks are asking where vCenter Converter / Standalone Converter has gone to as it has disappeared from the VMware Download website. Although the links are still there on the VMware website and for instance in VMware Workstation, those links do not go to a download.
Somehow I missed this article, seems that VMware vCenter Converter was completely removed from the Download section on the VMware website. New product under development! https://t.co/8HLfmWn00f
— Duncan Epping (@DuncanYB) February 3, 2022
As stated in the article I tweeted, the downloads for Converter have been completely removed from the VMware website. There are some locations on the internet where you can still find the download like on Softpedia, Filehorse, Download3k, and probably some other random sites. I do however not recommend downloading the product as it is “end-of-life”, has not been updated for years, and there are some security concerns. According to the official blog, VMware is working on a new product for P2Vs, a timeline has not been provided, but there are alternatives out there from other vendors and for V2V there’s VMware’s HCX.
I have a different understanding about “service”. I would provide a alternative BEFORE I remove an old service.
It is not a service, it was a free software product. Secondly, the product has been “end of life” for years, which means it wasn’t supported in any shape or form, neither was it updated or patched against any security threats. I can fully understand why it was removed to be honest.
it is a service for customers to bring their old machine into the VMWARE eco system, so brow beating someone a message board to corporate boot lick and sound smart is so American
Ill just use another company as it looks the die hard fans are just trolls and no clear product vision from the actual company
Well said
The objection I would make is that no alternative software has been developed and made available to VMware customers for years.
All virtualization solutions have tools to facilitate the migration of workloads into their platforms.
What solution does VMware recommend while waiting for the new software?
I have not seen a recommendation in terms of other P2V tools.
PlateSpin or Double Take. It’s honestly been a few years since I used either project. Neither imho were as simple and elegant as VMware converter
Hence, VMware acted in poor form.
I’ve used Veeam B&R before. Great article by Vladan if you want to know how to use it https://www.vladan.fr/vmware-vcenter-converter-discontinued-whats-your-options/
I agree Duncan. P2V is bread & butter for many and with this removal… There is no official tool for P2V from Vmware. Strange for a organization which want you to virtualise.
Same time, thanks for this article. Clears few doubt. A colleague pointed this yesterday to me so guess time to save old binaries and keep fingers crossed for it to work
I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but several people have recommended the free StarWind V2V Converter / P2V converter as a reasonably drop-in replacement for VMware Converter.
A pound says the new software will not support legacy 32 bit server OS (e.g. Server 2003). That’s the main reason I use Converter. I’ll be keeping my binaries well backed up!
Then why does the latest VMWare Workstation say that convert a running Machine you need it, then point you to a place where it no longer exists?
I am guessing because the Workstation team was not aware of this change of availability unfortunately, or it slipped somehow.
the replacement will definitely be a paid product, most likely in a subscription model.
I wish they would specify what the risks were to using the software. They should notify their customers of the potential problems and then make them acknowledge the security risk before using it. This seems fishy to me.
Try this free trial of NAKIVO VMware software, https://www.nakivo.com/vmware-backup/ Its vCenter-managed and standalone already.
Vinchin is an alternative and can migrate data from 9 virtualizations(Xenserver, OpenStack, etc.) to VMware. Both regular full VM restore and instant VM restore are supported. https://vinchin.com/en/cross-platform-backup-and-recovery.html
Yesterday I downloaded the standalone converter from filehorse.com and converted my old XP system to a VM. I will find out if it works in a few hours when the copy is done. I followed the instructions here: https://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/convert-your-existing-windows-xp-system-into-a-virtual-machine/ and so far so good. I also found out that even though my XP system is old, the latest converter still worked.