You might have to modify the imported virtual machine, depending on settings and virtual hardware.

The imported VMware virtual machine contains an exact copy of the disk state from your source virtual machine, with the exception of some hardware-dependent drivers and sometimes the mapped drive letters. Imported virtual machines are created with IDE or SCSI virtual disks. You can manually change the disk to SATA or NVMe when the import process is complete.

Settings from the Source Computer

The following settings from the source computer remain identical:

  • Operating system configuration (computer name, security ID, user accounts, profiles and preferences, and so on)

  • Applications and data files

  • The volume serial number of each disk partition

Because the target and the source virtual machines or system images have the same identities (name, SID, and so on), running both on the same network can result in conflicts. To redeploy the source virtual machine or system image, ensure that you do not run both the source and target images or virtual machines on the same network at the same time.

For example, if you use the Fusion Importer to test the viability of running a Parallels or Virtual PC virtual machine as a VMware virtual machine without first decommissioning the original non-VMware machine, you must resolve the duplicate ID problem first.

Changes to Virtual Hardware

Most imported applications should function correctly in the VMware virtual machine because their configuration and data files have the same location as the source virtual machine. Applications might not work if they depend on specific characteristics of the underlying hardware such as the serial number or the device manufacturer.

When you troubleshoot after a virtual machine import, notice the following potential hardware changes:

  • CPU model and serial numbers (if activated) can be different after the import. They correspond to the physical computer hosting the VMware virtual machine.

  • Ethernet adapter can be different (AMD PCNet or VMXnet) with a different MAC address. Each interface’s IP address must be individually reconfigured.

  • Graphics card can be different (VMware SVGA card).

  • Numbers of disks and partitions are the same, but each disk device can have a different model and different manufacturer strings.

  • Primary disk controllers can be different from the source machine’s controllers.

  • Applications might not work if they depend on devices that are not available from within a virtual machine.