Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion to VMware ESXi is blocked when source volume is larger than 2TB.

Problem

Physical to virtual (P2V) conversions to VMware ESXi, using System Recovery, are blocked with the below message when the source (original) volume is larger than 2TB.

Error Message

VMDK size cannot exceed the maximum limit of '2 TB - 512 bytes' on VMware ESX Server.

Solution

VMware have confirmed that converting disks larger than 2TB is not supported ( https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/vddk-601-releasenotes.html). Refer to the 'Known Issues and Workaround' section ( Hosted virtual disk > 2TB is not supported).

A workaround would be to convert disks that are smaller than 2TB and perform restores for disks that are 2TB or larger.

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