virtualising an existing server using VirtualBox

[NoOp]

On 12/12/2010 04:40 AM, Karl Auer wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> I have a Linux server I'd like to virtualise. VirtualBox has an option
> "convertfromraw" which apparently converts a raw disk image into a VM
> image (vdi or vmdk)
> 
> Has anyone successfully done this? If so, have any tips?
> 
> Obviously the alternative is to rebuild the server, but that would be a
> wearisome task. I'm virtualising for hardware independence more than
> anything else. The hardware in use is getting pretty elderly and I'd
> rather get something else in place before it fails.

I've tried... and failed for the most part. I was successful on one, but
could never get it tuned properly. Instead I converted to VMWare &
haven't looked back. Use the VMWare standalone converter, bring the
machine over & use VMWare player or server (both free).

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VMware

I was able to successfully & without much trouble at all, take 3 WinXP's
that were on old drives that were destined for the trash, to VMWare.
Only effort was time to do the convert over a slow network.

Note: I do still have multiple VirtualBox installs, but the more that I
use VMWare Player, the more I like it. I'm in the process now of
converting 3 VB machines over to VMWare.