physical to virtual

Physical to virtual (P2V) is a term that refers to the migration of an operating system (OS), application programs and data from a computer's main hard disk to a virtual machine or a disk partition.

P2V can be done manually by creating or defining a virtual environment and then reinstalling the OS, applications and data on it. This can be a tedious and uncertain process, especially if the new environment contains substantially different hardware than the old. To streamline the operation, part or all of the migration can be carried out automatically by means of specialized programs known as migration tools. P2V is commonly used to accomplish server virtualization. P2V is also becoming popular as a means for Macintosh users to run Windows applications.

Learn more about P2V, V2V and V2P migration

Virtual machine live migration boosts business continuity, disaster recovery: Live migration keeps applications available by moving virtual machines to different physical host servers.
Virtual server migration guide: Virtual server migrations are critical to a virtual deployment's success. This guide covers server migration basics and how to execute them in Hyper-V and VMware environments.
	Virtualization management webcasts by Anil Desai: This webcast series offers expert advice on choosing how and what to virtualize, virtual machine profiling and load distribution, creating a virtual machine library and more.
A Sun VirtualBox P2V server conversion walkthrough: Sun VirtualBox physical-to-virtual conversions can be daunting because the offering lacks native support for a P2V conversion. But fear not; VirtualBox P2V is possible.
Migration from physical to virtual servers explained: Follow these steps for a smooth migration from a physical server to virtual machines using virtual server migration tools.
Understanding how VMware VMotion live migration works: VMware's VMotion live migration is one of the most sought-after features of vSphere. An expert explains how VMotion works and its significance.

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More resources from around the web: - Paul Venezia compares the advantages and limitations of several P2V programs. - Mike Laverick describes a free program that can clone a physical machine to a virtual machine. - SearchServerVirtualization.com provides links to white papers and vendor information relevant to P2V.

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