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As you probably already know a VM is incapsulated with a set of files that define VM properties and objects. Some of those files are the virtual disks files and each vendor use its own format: VMware use the VMDK and Microsoft & Citrix use the VHD format. Note that there could be more sub-types (for example for the VMDK files, but we will explain in future posts). To convert between different format you can use some kind of converter to perform a virtual to virtual (V2V) task.

If you want to import some VHD files to vSphere 5, you can use:

  • VMware Standalone Converter: it works fine, but the guest must be managed by Hyper-V and the guest must be powered on.
  • Starwind Converter: Hyper-V is not involved in anyway, all your doing is converting the VHD file to VMDK and then import the vmdk file into your vSphere environment.
  • WinImage: first thing you will need is Win Image 8.10. Then it can handle virtual disk convertion in a simple way (for more info see this howto).
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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.