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Won't it freak out because all the hardware has changed?


Linux? Nah. I moved a single install across a few generations of Compaq hardware with no problems. Best way I found to do it was to swap the disks in, and ensure the hardware RAID controller saw them. I'd then boot the new server with the install CD of the OS, switch over to a console once it booted and run dmesg to look at the kernel log and see what storage module it loaded. After that, mount the disks if not already done, and go change the storage module name over to the new device. After that it was a reboot to bring up the old install, then possibly a module change for the network adaptor.

If I remember right, VMWare emulates a pretty old and standard SCSI controller, so even an old RedHat 7.1 install should have no problems supporting it. If it's on an IDE controller currently, just remember to change things from /dev/hda to /dev/sda if you aren't using labels to mount disks.