P2V (Physical to Virtual) Conversion Fails with “The destination does not support EFI firmware”

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When performing a P2V (Physical to Virtual) migration using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, the conversion fails with the error:
The destination does not support EFI firmware
This occurs after selecting the destination ESXi host and datastore. The source physical server uses EFI firmware, but the Converter version in use does not support newer ESXi hardware versions or EFI virtual machine compatibility required by vSphere 8.

Environment

Source Physical Server
Firmware: EFI
Operating System: RHEL 6.6 64-bit

Converter
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.2.0 (build 8466193)

Destination
vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3
ESXi 8.x hosts
VM Hardware Version target: 21

Cause

The issue occurs because VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.2.0 is an outdated release from 2018. Please see build numbers and version  https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/316394/build-numbers-and-versions-of-vmware-con.html  
This version does not include support for newer ESXi 8.x platforms, EFI based VM creation requirements or virtual hardware version 21. Due to this compatibility gap, Converter incorrectly reports that the ESXi destination does not support EFI firmware.

Resolution

Download and Install latest supported release of VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, version 6.6.
After upgrading to Converter 6.6, re run the P2V workflow. EFI firmware conversions to ESXi 8.x and VM hardware version 21 are supported, and the migration completes successfully.