From the official announcement by VMware:
VMware is proud to announce the Beta availability of Virtual Machine Importer 2.0, the latest desktop utility for IT professionals and software developers/testers working with virtual machines. VMware Virtual Machine Importer (VMI) is a freely available, stand-alone utility to import virtual machines from different source formats into several VMware product destinations, and can be used to:
- Move virtual machines across different test/dev and production environments
- Convert virtual machines for use across different VMware product formats
- Create VMware virtual machines from 3rd party formats like Symantec Livestate & Microsoft Virtual Server/PC
- Reduce the time needed to populate new virtual machine environments
- Transform physical images restored into virtual disks to be compatible with virtual hardware (P2V of Symantec Livestate & Ghost 9 images)
- Overcome legacy operating system migration barriers
New Features
The newest version under development features the following functionality:
- Updated support for the latest VMware product sources & destinations
- Including beta versions of VMware Server 1.0, ESX Server 3.0, and VirtualCenter 2.0
- Expanded ability to import pre-existing VMware virtual machines or system images stored in various 3rd party formats:
- Including Symantec LiveState, and Microsoft Virtual PC/Server images
- Added capabilities for transforming physical images restored into virtual disks to be compatible with virtual hardware
- P2V of Symantec Livestate & Ghost 9 images
- Simple to use graphical wizard interface
For additional details please go to the beta website.