When using the VMWare convertor utility to convert between VmWare player/Workstation/server VM images to an ESX image, if the VM you are converting is Linux you might run into boot problems (“kernel panic” message) due to SCSI drivers problems.

I found a couple of resources about the problem but none fully worked for me, here is my special recipe:
The configuration I used was: RHEL 5.1 VM, and ESX 3.x server.

  1. Use the converter to load the image to the ESX
  2. If you will start the converted image on the ESX you will see a kernel panic message
  3. Go to VMWare infrastructure client -> ESX server -> vm props -> hardware -> SCSI controller -> change from buslogic to LSI Logic
  4. Load the vm CD-ROM drive with RHEL5 install disk (also serves as a rescue disk)
  5. Boot the VM from the CD -> when prompted, enter: linux rescue
  6. The rescue disk should identify the linux partition and mounts it on /mnt/sysimage
  7. After getting a prompt enter: chroot /mnt/sysimage
  8. Backup, and then edit /etc/modules.conf, add this line: alias scsi_hostadapter BusLogic
  9. Backup the current ramdisk file: cp /boot/init-[version].img /boot/init-[version].img.bak
  10. Rebuild with new module and overwrite existing:  mkinitrd -f -v /boot/initrd-[version]-img [version]
  11. Reboot the OS.
  12. Boot from the hard drive – The system will start normally

Weird that VMWare do not bother with their official proper documentation.
Kudos to the vmware user community!