VMware VCENTER CONVERTER EN-000158-02 - Manual (Page 16)

Cloning Modes
Converter Standalone implements volume-based cloning, disk-based cloning, and linked cloning.
Table 1-3. Cloning Modes
Cloning Mode Application Description
Volume based Selects the volumes to copy from the
source machine to the destination
machine.
Volume-based cloning is relatively
slow. File-level cloning is slower than
block-level cloning. Dynamic disks are
converted into basic volumes on the
target virtual machine.
Disk based Creates exact copies of the source
machines, for all types of basic and
dynamic disks.
You cannot select which data to copy.
Disk-based cloning is faster than
volume-based cloning.
Linked clone Use to quickly check compatibility of
non-VMware images
For certain third-party sources, the
linked clone is corrupted if you power
on the source machine. Linked cloning
is the fastest (but incomplete) cloning
mode that Converter Standalone
supports.
Volume-Based Cloning
Converter Standalone supports volume-based cloning for hot and cold cloning and to import existing virtual
machines.
In volume-based cloning, all volumes in the destination virtual machine are converted to basic volumes,
regardless of their type in the corresponding source volume. Volume-based cloning at the file or block level is
performed, depending on the volume size you select. Dynamic source disks are read but not preserved during
volume-based conversions. Dynamic disks are converted into basic volumes on the target virtual machine.
Volume-based cloning at
the file level Performed when any size smaller than the original is selected.
Volume-based cloning at
the block level Performed when the volume size is maintained or extended.
Depending on the cloning mode, Converter Standalone might not support some types of source volumes.
Table 1-4 shows the supported and unsupported source volume types.
Table 1-4. Supported and Unsupported Source Volumes
Cloning Mode Source Volumes Supported Source Volumes Not Supported
Virtual machine importing n Basic volumes
n All types of dynamic volumes
n Windows NT 4 with mirrored
volumes
n Only master boot record (MBR)
disks
n RAID
n Windows NT4 fault-tolerant
volumes
n GUID partition table (GPT) disks
Hot cloning All types of source volumes that
Windows recognizes
n Any volumes that reside on
Windows NT operating systems
Volume-based cloning at the file level is supported only for FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, and ReiserFS file
systems.
User's Guide
16 VMware, Inc.