VMware Converter 3 beta out

VMWARE RELEASED a beta of its newest toy, VMware Converter 3 for general use, and it is free. This new utility is similar to Ghost, it takes an image of a running windows server and turns it into a VMware image. For the price, it is a good deal.

There are two versions, the normal one which you can download for free here, and an enterprise variant. If you have an enterprise license for VMware, you get the big one for free as well.

Both will only turn Windows NT4, 2000, XP and Server 2003 into VM images, no Linux yet. It may seem like a glaring omission, but hey, it is free. One really nice touch is that you can clone a box remotely without disturbing it, it just takes a snapshot and grinds away as the server goes about it's work.

Converter will also convert several types of images, MS Virtual PC, MS Virtual Server, Backup Exec Recovery and Ghost in addition to older VMware formats to the current state of the art. Theoretically, it should do it all, and do it unobtrusively, VMware P2V Assistant and VM Importer in one spiffy GUI.

If you want to get your feet wet with VMware, this looks like a good place to start. If it lives up to it's point and click functionality, it will be a boon to IT managers everywhere. If not, you are out all of $0, so it is worth giving it a try. You have nothing to lose but time. µ