The requirements for the physical source computer depend on whether you are performing an online or offline P2V conversion. In either case, VMM temporarily installs an agent on the physical source computer that you want to convert. With online P2V, VMM uses Volume Shadow Copy Service to copy data while the server continues to service user requests. The source computer is not restarted during the conversion. With offline P2V, the source computer restarts into the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) before VMM converts the physical disks to Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs).

To perform an offline P2V conversion, your source computer:

• Must have at least 512 MB of RAM.
  
  
• Must be in a workgroup environment, in the same domain as the VMM server, or a member of a domain that has a full two-way trust with the domain of the VMM server.
  
  

Supported Operating Systems

Note
VMM does not support P2V on source computers running Windows NT Server 4.0. However, you can use the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit (VSMT) or third-party solutions for converting computers running Windows NT Server 4.0.

For more information about the recommended system requirements for VMM deployment scenarios, see VMM 2008 System Requirements (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110906).