How to Convert a VM server to a Physical server

[Mr__Bromden]

Hello there,

I have to convert two VMs (Windows Server 2003) into physical servers.

I would appreciate if somebody can point me to the right resources to be able complete the above task.

Kind Regards,

[AWo]

You can't use the VMware Converter to do this. Check for CBMR at http://www.cristie.com. They offer a full functional trial. CBMR is a desaster recovery Tool which you can use for P2V, P2P and V2P as it is able to change the storage adapter during the restore.

Short process description: you create a backup (data and system information of the host in question while it is running) into a file to some network share. Boot the physical machine with the product CD, connect to the share, restore the files and change the storage adapter driver.

[Mr__Bromden]

Hello AWo,

Thank you for the prompt reply.

I know that VM Converter cannot do the V2P conversion.

I shall give it a go with the tool from the link you have suggested. Can you think of any other tools that would do the trick?

Thank you very much indeed.

[AWo]

VMware offers something for achieving this: http://www.vmware.com/support/v2p/doc/V2P_TechNote.pdf

Acronis has this feature since one or two years, too (CBMR has this since 1996!). But this has to be licensed separately and didn't saw it as a trial download, yet.

Microsoft has some articles about moving Windows to different hardware (this is what you want to do). As far as I remember you either have to install the new driver before moving the OS to the new host and to do so you need the hardware installed during the driver installation. But that is not possible for a virtual machine.

You may also use the Winodws repair function and product CD to change the driver. But I do not know the exact steps.

Search this forum for "V2P" and you get some results.

[jose_maria_gonz]

Hi Bromden,

Here is another tool that does X2X. It not a free tool although.

http://www.platespin.com/products/powerconvert/

rgds,

J.

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El Blog de Virtualizacion en Español

http://josemariagonzalez.es

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[Mr__Bromden]

Hello Jose_Maria,

Thank you very much,

I have been looking at PlateSpin recently regarding V2P conversion. Not cheap though.

Kind Regards,

[Mr__Bromden]

Hi AWo,

Thank you for the link. I shall search the forums for any other threads with similar subject.

[nabsltd]

I export the ESX disk to a VMware Workstation format. I then run Workstation on a machine that I have added a physical disk (usually IDE to avoid boot issues), and connect the physical drive to the VM.

Start the VM in Workstation and run your favorite disk clone tool (I like Acronis). Then shutdown the VM and remove the original disk, and make sure it can boot off the physical one. Copy any hardware driver files you will need for the new physical machine (RAID, network, etc.) to the VM. Uninstall VMware tools (optional for now, but you'll have to do it eventually, anyway).

Shut down the VM and the physical machine and remove the physical disk.

Add the physical disk to your physical server and boot it up. Let Windows discover all the hardware and add drivers as necessary.

Then, if you are using RAID and want to boot off of it, clone the IDE drive to the RAID (again, Acronis does this very well), remove the IDE and off you go.

[Mr__Bromden]

Hello nabsltd,

Thank you for the reply. I have been away and have not looked at my company e-mail. Can you expand more on the next step you do in your conversion process. "I then run Workstation on a machine that I have added a physical disk (usually IDE to avoid boot issues), and connect the physical drive to the VM." I will appreciate if you could tell me more how do you do it.

Thank you very much indeed.

Regards,

I can export the ESX disk to a VMware Workstation format. Can you expand a bit on the next step please.

[nabsltd]

After the export of the VMDK to VMware Workstation format, you add a physical disk to the machine on which you run Workstation. This physical disk will be the boot disk for the physical machine in the V2P process.

Then, create a VM on Workstation and add both the exported VMDK and the physical disk as disk drives in that VM. Boot the VM and use your favorite disk clone tool to copy the exported VMDK to the physical disk. Shut down Workstation and the machine it runs on, and remove the physical disk. Install it as the boot drive in the physical machine, and you should be OK, although you might need to add a few drivers.

You can see why I suggest using an IDE disk--it is pretty much universally supported, and you are moving it around to different machines.

If you don't plan on the physical machine booting from IDE in the long run, just clone the IDE drive onto whatever the actual boot system will be: SATA, SCSI, RAID, etc.

[Mr__Bromden]

Hello nabsltd,

Thank you for the detailed step by step explanation of the V2P.

It seems to me pretty easy, though there are always some issues when the process starts.

I have started to prepare for the conversion using sysprep using the VMware tech. note on the subject.

We have two Windows 2003 VMs that are not performing great, especially one running SQL 2005. The CPU utilisation is constantly above the 65-70% mark. This is the sole reason for the V2P.

By the way, do you use the sysprep too for the conversion or only method described above?

Kind Regards,

[nabsltd]

Sysprep does basically two things: 1) change the machine identification (SID, name, registration key) and 2) allow you to place hardware drivers on the disk so they can be found when the system first boots.

The first part is completely unimportant for a true V2P where the resulting physical machine replaces the virtual machine. You want it to retain its identity, so none of that needs to change. For me, if I'm using my standard VM image to provision a physical machine, I just run "newsid" at some point (usually within Workstation right after the clone to physical disk). Since none of my images are domain members, and I have MS volume licensing, nothing complex about the identity needs to change.

The second part can be more problematic, but if you don't need a special storage driver (and you shouldn't with an IDE boot disk), then any other special drivers can easily be added after the first boot via CD or USB. If the network card is supported by default, then you can just download every other driver you might need. One thing sysprep can do is allow the HAL to be changed (including downgraded) in a Microsoft supported manner. But, if you use "ACPI Uniprocessor HAL" on your images, then all modern hardware is covered, since the upgrade to "ACPI Multiprocessor HAL" is automatically done by plug-and-play. For one old system, I did have to downgrade to "ACPI PC" manually, which is also supported by MS.

So, I never use sysprep, because it does far more than needs to be done most of the time, although the automation it provides with cloning machines using Enterprise Converter is kind of nice.

[Mr__Bromden]

Hi nabsltd,

Apologies for the very late reply. I have been away for 2 weeks.

Thank you for your note. I have managed to convert the VM servers to physicals.

Regards,

[vmroyale]

Hello.

What hardware are you moving these VMs to?

[Mr__Bromden]

Hello vmroyale,

I moved them to Dell 1950s.

Used Clonezilla to transfer an image from the VMs onto the new hardware. Did a sysprep beforehand. on the new machines.

Now the new machines are flying. Not a problem at all. After the conversion I have plenty of resources left on the host to play around with, as the two VMs were quite demanding on CPU and memory.

Thank you.

Regards,