I have a small office that has an old Windows XP system with some proprietary software on it that's not available any more but the office still uses (with continual data being updated). I've been tasked with ensuring the longevity of that system, considering it's on a workstation that's over 10 years old: fortunately the disk (my greatest fear of failing) is still working.
My plan is to get a new workstation and install ESXi onto it, then perform a P2V on the XP system and get it migrated to a VM. That way irrespective of potential failing hardware, the system can live on. Another alternative would be to clone the disk, but with the data continually being updated, that's not an overly viable solution even if I were to move the data files onto a network share.
The office is tight on funds, I've been able to convince them to pay for the ESXi license (as other VMs could/would potentially run on the system in the future) but if I have to purchase a Windows Server license, along with a VMware vCenter license, just to use the converter, then I feel as if that is going to be an uphill battle.
From the VMware corporate and support sites states that the converter is "VMware vCenter Converter", but there's a standalone version that, I believe, works without vCenter having to be installed.
Does anyone know if that's true and if so, can I safely assume that it'll work simply to migrate my XP system via P2V to the ESXi host, without having vCenter running on that ESXi?
