One of the most common questions that pops up as part of planning a migration from VMware vSphere to XenServer is if the VMs should be migrated or rebuilt on the new platform . For the cases where the answer is migration, there is a free tool available as part of the XenServer offering.
Conversion Manager is an appliance based tool that can do batch migration of multiple VMware VMs in parallel in a very easy-to-use manner. Conversion Manager is operated and controlled through XenCenter, so you don’t need to learn a new UI in order to use the tool. Basically you just need to define the network and storage repositories that you want to use for your converted VMs, then connect the Conversion Manager to your VMware cluster and then start converting VMs.
You can convert 10 VMs in parallel and but define even a bigger number; the VMs will be processed in batches of 10. Add here information about what load running the Conversion Manager causes on both the vSphere as well as the XenServer host.
During the migration process, XCM exports the VM from VMware to XenServer, which consumes bandwidth on both the vSphere and XenServer sides. Additionally, ensure that XCM can communicate with the shared storage repository (SR) on XenServer. By default, XCM uses the VM Network on VMware and the Management Network on XenServer, unless otherwise configured by the user. It is essential to ensure that the network connection between VMware and XenServer is properly established.
With the latest release— Conversion Manager 8.5.0 — we’ve happy to annouce new enhancements:
- Support for Windows 11 VM migration, including vTPM migration. (Since version 8.4.0)
- You can now instruct Conversion Manager to install XenServer Tools for Windows VMs as the final step in the conversion process. You have the option to either specify a previously downloaded XenTools version for greater control, or let Conversion Manager automatically download the latest version from the internet. (Since version 8.4.0)
- VM Template Association: During conversion, you can now associate a VM with a XenServer guest template. Using a template ensures that converted VMs have consistent configurations and more reliable behavior.
- XenServer VM Tools Configuration: You can now configure whether the Windows drivers included in XenServer VM Tools are automatically updated as part of the conversion process.
To use these features, ensure that your XenCenter is updated to at least version 2025.2.0.
With these enhancements, XenServer Conversion Manager is now a comprehensive, streamlined solution for migrating your workloads from VMware to XenServer—whether you’re moving a few VMs or hundreds. It simplifies the transition by automating many of the time-consuming steps and reducing the need for manual configuration.
For more information around XenServer Conversion Manager please visit the XenServer 8.4 documentation.