Introducing the virt-v2v utility

virt-v2v is a special command-line utility, using which we can convert VMs from a foreign hypervisor to run on a KVM hypervisor managed by libvirt, OpenStack, oVirt, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). virt-p2v is a companion tool of virt-v2v that comes as an ISO or CD image to help a physical machine's conversion to a virtual machine.

However, is a special utility to convert a virtual machine from one platform to another or physical to virtual server conversion really required? Can't we just copy the bits residing on a physical disk to a virtual disk, such as dd + nc? This might be the question in your mind. If it is, then it's a valid question indeed.

System conversion using utilities such as dd and nc works. You will be able to migrate the systems from virtual to virtual, as well as physical to virtual, but with partial success. It also involves a lot of manual work, so there is a high chance of failure.

To automate the conversion...