Working on a project for stuff I personally own and manage (VMWare Servers and various guest OS’s) I had to convert machines using VMWare Stand Alone Converter.

A quick note about that – if you’re converting Linux Machines that have the “root” account disabled by default like Ubuntu has then you need to log into your Ubuntu target and make the root account able to login via the console and ssh.

Some by default deny root logon to ssh (a good idea!) but you’d have to set that – it’s not set by default in the ssh server config.  If you haven’t done that then all you need to do is this:

1 – Login to your Ubuntu workstation as your regular non privileged user

2 – sudo -i

3 – Type in the password for the non privileged user – this will then elevate you to “root”

4 – Type:  passwd

5 – Type in your new password two times

6 – Logout

Now you can use those credentials in VMWare converter to migrate your machine from one server to another!  Also note, when doing this you’ll need to adjust your NIC since it won’t get an IP address (see the post before this one).

Also note – once your machine is converted set your root account back to default so it can’t login.  To “disable” the account type in:

passwd -dl root

* Note – you should be logged in as root to run this command!  Then “exit” and log out.  Try logging in as root now – you shouldn’t be able to but you can sudo to still elevate your non privileged user to root privileges.

Reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo