Hello,
Yes, such migration is possible.
I have done P2V conversion from old physical computer
with Debian/GNU Linux 4.0 to the VM on ESXi 5.1.0 host
using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone
(plus some additional steps).
Physical computer:
- 1 pCPU Pentium IV (2.8 GHz, HT)
- 1024 pRAM
- 1 SCSI disk 40 GB, classical partitions (not LVM)
- 2 pNICs (eth0, eth1)
- operating system: Debian/GNU Linux 4.0r6 (32-bit)
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone: 5.0.1 build-875114
installed on Windows Server 2008 R2.
ESXi host: 5.1.0 Build-799733 (managed by vCenter Server).
After running Converter, I've got new powered off VM.
This VM could be powered on, but with blank (black)
VM console screen, that is Linux did not boot.
I had to reinstall GRUB using Debian rescue mode
(doing some preparation steps and then
executing command 'grub-install /dev/sda').
Linux was booted properly after that.
One of my final steps was to modify
/etc/udev/rules/z25_persistent-net.rules
file, making proper replacement of two new NICs eth2 and eth3
to eth1 and eth0 (respectively).
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Piotr