Scan Physical

Physical scan mode connects directly to the guest operating system of each target machine. It covers standalone physical servers and virtualised environments where DMC cannot query a hypervisor API directly, including Hyper-V and Nutanix estates.

All three scan types use the same Physical scan mode in DMC.
The difference is how you supply the target server list: physical servers can be entered directly, while Hyper-V and Nutanix environments require you to export a guest VM list first and import it as a CSV.

Choose your scan¶

Pick the guide that matches your environment. Each page walks you through every step from prerequisites to export.

Physical Servers

Scan standalone physical servers by specifying each host directly in DMC.

Add servers by IP or FQDN
Windows and Linux guest OS scanning
Software inventory and network dependencies
SQL Server instance discovery

Set up Physical Servers scan → Hyper-V

Scan Hyper-V guest VMs via Physical scan mode, using a CSV export from your Hyper-V estate.

Export guest list from Hyper-V, import to DMC
Windows and Linux guest OS scanning
Software inventory and network dependencies
SQL Server instance discovery

Set up Hyper-V scan → Nutanix

Scan Nutanix guest VMs via Physical scan mode, using a CSV export from your Nutanix estate.

Export guest list from Nutanix, import to DMC
Windows and Linux guest OS scanning
Software inventory and network dependencies
SQL Server instance discovery

Set up Nutanix scan →

Not sure which to pick?¶

If your servers are standalone hardware or bare-metal, use Physical Servers.

If your machines are guest VMs running on a Hyper-V or Nutanix host, use the matching guide. The key difference is that you need to export the VM list from the hypervisor before importing it into DMC.

If you have VMware VMs but no vCenter access, use Physical Servers, but note that VMware-specific metrics (historical performance, AVS sizing) will not be collected. Use the VMware scan if you have vCenter credentials.

Never scan the same machine using both VMware mode and Physical scan mode.
Mixing modes creates duplicate records and inaccurate reporting in Dr Migrate. One machine, one scan mode, always.