VMWare Converter Standalone 5.0 Unexpected Close with ESX 5.1

When addressing the problem of a Converter Standalone 5.0 closing unexpectedly when accessing vSphere 5.1 targets, the VMWare website recommends updating to 5.0.1 or if you cannot, provides a workaround solution.

However, as we discovered when attempting to perform our initial P2V process, the issue isn’t exclusive to vSphere 5.1 targets.  Standalone ESX 5.1 targets are also incompatible.  Our work-around was this:  with a server running ESX 5.1, we installed ESX 5.0, which is compatible, on a bootable USB stick.  We then rebooted the server into ESX 5.0 and performed the P2V.  Once the conversions were done, we removed the stick, booted back into ESX 5.1, browsed the data store, and added the converted machine to the inventory.