According to an embodiment of the invention, a physical server is migrated to a virtual server, which may then be adopted by a new physical server. When the physical server is migrated, the physical server contacts a multi-appliance management application to determine a location on a storage network for replacement storage. The physical server copies its data volumes to the replacement storage. The migration process also converts the operating system of the physical server into a virtual server. The virtual server is a software incarnation of the physical server, and can be run using a generic hardware server. The data of the physical server stored in the replacement storage is linked to the virtual server. In this way, a physical server is migrated to a virtual server.