Comparison: SCVMM P2V and Sysinternals Disk2VHD
Sysinterals recently released a free P2V. The comparison table below is for your reference to help highlight the difference in features and functionality between the two. The table is not meant to pin one tool against the other (i.e. who is better). The free tool is not meant to compete against VMM P2V. The free tool does however address the following gaps:
1. Support technician that needs to capture a VM from a physical machine for troubleshooting purposes (VMM is not deployed)
2. Customers that do not want deploy VMM just for P2V or pay for another product
3. End-user converting their own desktop to VMs without requiring a server admin
*Table updated to reflect features in v1.62 of Disk2VHD
Features
VMM P2V
Sysinternals Disk2vhd
Disable services offline after conversion
Yes
No
Disable drivers offline after conversion
Yes
No
Offline P2V support (uses WINPE)
Yes
No
Operating system re-configuration (install IDE driver, fix up HAL, fixup boot)
Yes
Yes
Automation through scripting
Yes (POSH)
Yes(Command shell)
Job progress and job audit
Yes
No (can code something in POSH for job progress)
Supports remote execution
Yes
No
Supports no user interaction on source
Yes
No
Enhanced placement technology to know which host to place the VM workload on
Yes
No
Carry over network configuration from source NICs (static IP)
Yes
No
Skip copy of empty space on source to improve transfer time
Yes
Yes
Uses VSS for online P2V
Yes
Yes
Supports BITS for transferring files (both online and offline) - secure, re-start
Yes
No
Support streaming of data between the source and destination
Yes
No
Support disk size expansion
Yes
No
Automatically install Integration Services
Yes
No
Support W2KSP4
Yes
No
Support client and server OS - XP, W2K3, Vista, W2K8, Win7, W2K8 R2
Yes
Yes
Automatic creation of VM as part of conversion
Yes
No
Free
No
Yes
Requires Management Tool (additional infrastructure)
No
Yes
End-user standalone interface
No
Yes