# FreeBSD v4.11: Converting physical to virtual machine



## jamm62 (Feb 12, 2009)

Hi,

I have to convert a production system running FreeBSD v4.11 into a virtual VMware machine. A procedure described elsewhere involves:

1) Make a backup or dump of the source machine
2) Create a new virtual machine with the same version of FreeBSD.
3) Boot the latter from a livecd image and restore the data onto it.

The problem is that the source machine can't be out of service for too long, since it runs some critical services. Also, AFAIK, the 'dump' tool in this version doesn't support the -L option, needed to get a reliable backup of a live system.

Any advice will be welcome. Thanks in advance,

JAMM


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## ale (Feb 12, 2009)

If I'm not wrong, with esx and also with server version, you can create a vm from a live system. I did it some months ago with a windows pc.


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