In our latest feature-a-day preview of XenServer "Project Orlando," let's deal with the issue of taking existing server workloads and bringing them to the XenServer platform.  While there are great third-party physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration offering out there, many users want a quick out-of-the-box solution to get started.

This beta release includes the first beta of a new tool, XenConvert.  Users can run XenConvert on their Windows server or desktop systems and export the workload as a VHD format file or as an XVA appliance file, or  they can directly import it into a running XenServer instance.  Registry and device conversions are handled in the process.

Most common versions of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows are supported; the complete list will be in the XenConvert release notes that will accompany the beta.

For production migrations, many customers  may find that the capacity planning features, greater release support, etc. that existing partner products (such as PlateSpin's PowerRecon and PowerConvert, or HP's ProLiant Essentials Server Migration Pack) offer may be an even better solution.  But XenConvert makes it easier to get started, and is a great solution for many users.