What you need to know about conversion
Supported virtual machine types
Conversion of a backup to a virtual machine can be done by the same agent that created the backup or by another agent.
To perform a conversion to VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, or Scale Computing HC3, you need an ESXi, Hyper-V, or Scale Computing HC3 host respectively and a protection agent (Agent for VMware, Agent for Hyper-V, or Agent for Scale Computing HC3) that manages this host.
Conversion to VHDX files assumes that the files will be connected as virtual disks to a Hyper-V virtual machine.
The following table summarizes the types of virtual machines that you can create with the Convert to VM operation. The rows in the table show the type of converted virtual machines. The columns show the agents that perform the conversion.
| VM type | Agent for VMware | Agent for Hyper-V | Agent for Windows | Agent for Linux | Agent for Mac | Agent for Scale Computing HC3 | Agent for oVirt (KVM) | Agent for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure | Agent for Virtuozzo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMware ESXi |
+ |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– | – | – | – |
| Microsoft Hyper-V |
– |
+ |
– |
– |
– |
– | – | – | – |
| VMware Workstation |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
– |
– | – | – | – |
| VHDX files |
+ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
– |
– | – | – | – |
| Scale Computing HC3 | – | – | – | – | – | + | – | – | – |
Limitations
- Backups stored on NFS cannot be converted.
- Backups stored in Secure Zone can be converted only by the agent running on the same machine.
-
Backups that contain Linux logical volumes (LVM) can be converted only if they were created by Agent for VMware, Agent for Hyper-V, and Agent for Scale Computing HC3 and are directed to the same hypervisor. Cross-hypervisor conversion is not supported.
- When backups of a Windows machine are converted to VMware Workstation or VHDX files, the resulting virtual machine inherits the CPU type from the machine that performs the conversion. As a result, the corresponding CPU drivers are installed in the guest operating system. If started on a host with a different CPU type, the guest system displays a driver error. Update this driver manually.
Regular conversion to virtual machine vs. running a virtual machine from a backup
Both operations provide you with a virtual machine that can be started in seconds if the original machine fails.
Regular conversion to virtual machine takes CPU and memory resources. Files of the virtual machine constantly occupy space on the datastore (storage). This may be not practical if a production host is used for conversion. However, the virtual machine performance is limited only by the host resources.
Running a virtual machine from a backup consumes resources only while the virtual machine is running. The datastore (storage) space is required only to keep changes to the virtual disks. However, the virtual machine may run slower, because the host does not access the virtual disks directly, but communicates with the agent that reads data from the backup. In addition, the virtual machine is temporary. Making the machine permanent is possible only for ESXi.