How to copy VMs to VMware ESXi Server

I have a few VMs that I created with a Vmware Server. Now I want to copy it over to run on an ESXi Server. In the past I was used to copying all the files under a VM directory and things would work right awy. Now it’s no longer the case. Since ESXi Server is a bare bone OS running on the hardware, there is no host OS to use for copying files. 

One way to copy the VMs over is using the UI(VMware Infrstructure Client) to “import” a Virtual Appliance. I tried creating virtual appliances out of my VMs and then do import. But for some reason the ESXi server didn’t like the .ova or .ovf files that I created. I gave up.

Another method is using vCenter Converter to copy your VMs to the ESXi Server. To do that you have to download and run vCenter Converter. Here’s link to download:

http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/

After starting the converter, pick your existing VM as the source and then specify destination. Choose “VMware Infrastructure virtual machine” . Specify the login user and password for the ESXi Server. It will copy the VM over and do the conversion.