Acronis Image (*.tib) Converted to VM?

[doepain]

I have an image of a server taken from Acronis trueimage, and I thought I could use COnverter on the *.tib on the file, and rip a VM of the image?

Am I even on this planet with this notion? I am thinking No, but still ni solar system. Please let me know if you have any clue whether this is possible.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Acronic True Image version 9 images are listed as supported here (page 19) - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual303.pdf.

[doepain]

I just checked the version of Acronis we are running and it is "True Image Echo Server". This may be the upgrade to True Image 9.

I checked the link to the VMWare manual, and it does not really talk about the steps involved on getting the "tib" to a VM.

[asatoran]

I don't know about Acronis specifically, but the workaround for any unsupported imaging program is to create a new virtual machine. Then restore the image into the virtual machine just like a physical machine. Then run Converter choosing "Configure Machine" instead of import. In essense, you're doing the copying of the image data into the virtual machine instead of having Converter do it for you.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The Acronis Univernal Restore option will also work quite well to inject the correct SCSI drivers when you restore an image into a VM.

[paragsha]

Specify the exact product & version of Acronis that you are using. Also specify the product & version of VMware that you are using. If you are using VMware Converter standalone version 3.0.3 you can import Acronis images (.tib) created with:

1. Acronis True Image 10. (This is found under their "Home products")

2. Acronis True Image Echo 9.1 (This is found under their "Small Business products")

As you will notice the current versions of these Acronis products are 11 and 9.5 respectively. These are currently not supported by VMware converter. It might be possible to convert these tibs to VMDK using Acronis products and you will have to reference the Acronis product manual for that.

As for the "steps" involved to getting a "tib" to a VM, it is fairly straight forward using Converter. You need to perform an "import" operation and select .tib as your source. Look at page 35 of the Converter manual http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual303.pdf

[doepain]

I am using Acronis True Image Echo server (which isversion 11), and I have accepted that it is not compatible with VM Converter (Starter).

I used Acronis to create vmdk, I will somehow use that image on an existing vanilla VM that I already have running.

[paragsha]

Great. Which product are you using -> Workstation/ESX/Server? Once you have a VMDK you can (a) Attach it to an existing VM. (b) Create a new VM and point to this vmdk as the virtual disk.

If you go with the 2nd option, the resulting VM might not boot. So before you try to boot the VM, you will need to use converter and do "Configure machine" and point to that VM (a .vmx file in case of VMware Workstation).

[doepain]

I am using VMWare 1.0.5 build-80187.

I have a working vanilla VM (like I said), and guess I can use this vmdk as the vmdk for this vanilla vm instance, and run vm-converter on it to et the vmx configured correctly. In theory it should (hopefully) work.

[IamTHEvilONE]

doepain,

As a follow up, support for Acronis True Image Echo 9.5 is planned for a future release of VMware Converter.

In the mean time, this procedure should work fine ... http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-5970/

I have tested this with a couple customer's already. Acronis gives you an option to export to an ESX VMDK or a Standalone. In your case of using VMware Server 1.0.5, you'd want the Standalone VMDK.

Once you have the VMDK disk drives (make sure to exclude diagnostic partitions during export), create a new virtual machine with VMware Server and use an Existing Disk (the VMDK created by Acronis).

this should work fine for you.