P2V: Prioritizing Physical Computers for Conversion
Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
To successfully perform a P2V conversion, you must know which computers you can and want to convert. The topics in this section help you identify which computers are good candidates for conversion.
Identifying Virtualization Candidates
If you have configured System Center Operations Manager, you can view the Virtualization Candidates report. This report helps you identify underutilized computers by displaying average values for a set of commonly requested performance counters for CPU, memory, and disk usage, along with hardware configurations, including processor speed, number of processors, and total RAM. You can limit the report to only computers that meet specified CPU and RAM requirements and you can sort the results by selected columns in the report.
For more information about opening a report, see Using Reports in VMM.
Prioritizing Virtualization Candidates
When identifying the best candidates for P2V conversion, consider converting these types of computers, in order of preference:
Non business-critical underutilized computers. By starting with the least utilized computers that are not business critical, you can learn the P2V process with relatively low risk. Web servers may make good candidates.
Computers with low utilization that are hosting less critical in-house applications.
Computers with higher utilization that are hosting less critical applications.
The remaining underutilized computers.