How to Restore a Server to VMware

Why restore a server to VMware? There are several reasons for restoring a server to VMware (Virtual MachineWare) in a virtualized environment: 1. Disaster Recovery: In the event of physical server failure, damage, or data loss, restoring server backups to a VMware virtual machine enables rapid business continuity. This minimizes downtime and reduces the risk of data loss. 2. Efficiency Improvement: By converting physical servers into VMware virtual machines, hardware resources can be better utilized, allowing for resource pooling and increased efficiency in management. 3. Testing and Development: Restoring server copies in a VMware environment provides a secure isolated environment for testing, development, or training purposes without impacting production systems. 4. Compatibility and Migration: Restoring servers to VMware VMs allows for easy migration between different hardware platforms while maintaining compatibility. This is particularly useful for hardware upgrades or data center migrations. 5. Scalability and Flexibility: VMware offers flexible virtualization solutions that make it easier to scale server resources, deploy new applications, or create multiple virtual machine instances. 6. Cost Savings: Virtualization technology can reduce the need for physical servers, thereby lowering hardware costs, power consumption, and maintenance expenses. In summary, restoring a server to VMware helps organizations achieve higher availability, flexibility, and efficiency while reducing operational costs.

Virtualization is an effective way to improve IT flexibility, agility, and scalability while reducing costs. It enables you to create virtual apps, servers, storage, networks, desktops, etc., without reinstalling the operating system or applications. This article will show you how to efficiently restore server systems to VMware Workstation. 

Backup and Restore with Todo Backup

is a comprehensive and user-friendly tool that offers reliable backup solutions for both individuals and businesses.

Please refer to the detailed steps below, accompanied by a screen capture.

1. Back up the physical computer with Todo Backup. 2. Create Emergency Disk and save the ISO file on the physical machine. 3. Launch VMware Workstation and create a new virtual machine with the "Typical Configuration" option and an empty hard disk. 4. Choose the operating system, version, name, location, and disk size for the new virtual machine. 5. After creating the virtual machine, go to "Settings" and set the computer to boot from the ISO image created by Todo Backup. 6. Power on the virtual machine and press any key within a few seconds to start from the CD or DVD. 7. The virtual machine will boot into Todo Backup's WinPE environment. Click "System Transfer" in the bottom right corner to begin the recovery process. 8. Browse to find the system backup image saved on a USB drive, external disk, network drive, or Tool Cloud. 9. Select the target disk and proceed with the recovery process.

Create a Virtual Machine from a Physical Computer in VMware

When you virtualize a physical machine, all applications, documents, and settings on the physical machine are captured into the new virtual machine. To use this feature, Workstation Pro must be running on a Windows host system. Follow these steps: 1. Power on the physical machine that you want to virtualize. 2. In Workstation Pro on your Windows host system, choose File > Convert Physical Machine. If you have never virtualized a physical machine in Workstation Pro, you must download and install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone. After installing VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, you must restart the wizard. 3. Enter the host name or IP address of the physical machine to virtualize, along with the user name and password. You must use an administrator account or an account that is a member of the local Administrators group. 4. Specify a name for the new virtual machine and the location on the host system where the virtual machine files will be stored. 5. Enter the user name and password for an account on the host system. 6. Click Finish to create the virtual machine from the physical machine. The time it takes to create the virtual machine depends on the size of the physical machine's hard disk.

Server Virtualization with vCenter Converter

As mentioned earlier, you can use vCenter Converter Standalone to virtualize physical Windows, Mac, or Linux machines. Here are the steps: 1. Launch vCenter Converter Standalone and click on **Convert machine**. Alternatively, select **File** > **New** > **Convert machine**. 2. In the Choose Source Type menu, select **Powered on**. A powered-off state allows you to convert an existing VM to VMDK, but since we're trying to virtualize a physical machine, that's not relevant here. 3. In the Specify Powered-on Machine section, for this tutorial, select **This local machine** and click **Next**. The other options let you convert a remote machine by specifying its IP and credentials. 4. From the Choose Target Type menu, select VMware Workstation or another VMware virtual machine. 5. In the Choose VMware Product menu, select the appropriate VMware version. 6. Name the VM, click **Browse**, and choose the location where you want to save the VM. 7. If you want to specify which partitions to convert, click **Edit** in the Copy Data section. Otherwise, click **Next**. 8. Review the conversion parameters one last time. If everything is as desired, click **Finish**. 9. vCenter Converter Standalone will now copy the contents of the machine to a virtual disk file (.vmdk). Once the VMDK is created, you can use it to create a virtual machine.

Conclusions

In a word, it's easy and straightforward to virtualize physical Windows Server and boot the system in a VM with the help of Todo Backup tool.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Restore a Server to VMware:

**1. What are the advantages of virtualization over physical environments?** The benefits of server virtualization include: - Increased server reliability and availability. - Reduced overall operating costs. - More efficient use of physical servers. - More effective utilization of power. **2. How do I restore a server using VMware snapshots?** - Navigate to "Virtual Machine" > "Snapshots." - Select the snapshot you want to restore. - Click on "Restore." - Choose "Save" to create a snapshot of the current state before restoring the virtual machine, or select "Do not save" the snapshot. The virtual machine will be restored to the state captured by the selected snapshot. **3. Can I restore a Todo Backup image to a virtual machine?** Yes, you can use P2V recovery to directly restore a tool disk/backup image to a virtual machine. This option is available in [AOMEI Todo Backup](/backup-software/tb-enterprise.html).