Question - Problems virtualizing a Windows 2000 SP4 workstation

[ratrat]

Hi - I've been having problems virtualizing a Windows 2000 PRO SP4 workstation (I have 2 more Win 2000 SP4 servers and an NT 4 SP6a server yet to go) and my procedure and results are below:

I’m trying to convert a running Win 2000 PRO SP4 machine to a VM that will run on a VMware ESXi Version 5.0.0 host (linux).

My associate found that I need to use the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client version 4.0.0 to connect to a Windows 2K OS guest system and virtualize it.

OK here’s how it goes…sorry it’s so long, but I’m a newbie at this and want to show what steps I’ve taken and how it goes wrong……

I open the 4.0.0 Converter Client on another Win 2000 Srvr machine (my XP machine already has the 5.0 converter on it) and select “Convert Machine”.

I fill in the info requested and say it’s a remote, powered-on machine.  OS Family = Windows.  I specified machine's IP.

Selected “Automatically uninstall the files when import succeeds”.

The agent deploys….

Selected destination type = “WMware Infrastructure or virtual machine”

Specified the destination IP (the ESXi host) and give root credentials for the host.

Click Next

Select datastore (datastore2 - has the most space on it) on WMware host and verify machine name to be Vm'd:  W2KPC.domain.com

Click Next…

It lists the properties, I lower the sizes of the C & D volumes (on VirtualDisk1), 1 proc (default), 256 MB RAM (default), choose ignore the page and hib files (default).

Click Next…

Verify information…the settings are what I selected...

Click Finish…It reboots the PC…wait about an hour….it completes and I have W2KPC.domain.com showing in the vSphere Client under the host along with other VMs.

If I try Edit Settings on W2KPC, I get:  Error: “An IDE controller is found but the virtual machine does not support the option.”

And when I click OK, I get another Error: “A Flat backing option was not found.”

Once I get to the Edit Settings screen and click on “Hard Disk 1”, I get:

“This type of virtual device is supported on this host, but not for the bus it is on (e.g., IDE or SCSI).

“The virtual machine can still be used on this host, but this device will not be present.

“You can remove this device, but if you wish to keep this device for when the virtual machine is moved back to a host where it will function, you don’t need to do anything.”

I have tried to Upgrade the Virtual Hardware one time, but it did nothing to help.

I also tried using the vCenter Converter version 5 on the VM and it did not help either.

I think I'm missing something here and it appears to be the disk format or type.  I'm not a linux expert either - so I don't know how to investigate things on the host (it was set up by someone else).

Does anyone has any clues as to what I am missing???

Thanks.

[golddiggie]

A few things...

Install the converter on the computer that you want to P2V.

Trim down the processes running on the source system to the absolute minimum needed (should be an option when you run through the wizard).

Convert the hard drives (during the process) from IDE to SCSI.

You might need to install SCSI drivers on the P2V'd system (either before, or after the conversion).

I wouldn't reduce the size of the original drives, since that can cause issues under Windows. If anything, split the drives into their own virtual drives, so that C is one VMDK and D is another. You'll appreciate this later, if not right away.

If the original system has more than one socket/core, you'll need to leave it with two vCPU's, at least for now. If you change the CPU count from multiple to single, you need to change the HAL on the system that has been converted. I've seen the incorrect HAL cause more than a few issues on systems (especially when converted).

Are the servers you're planning to P2V have SCSI drives or IDE drives?

Another option would be to convert using VMware Workstation, tweak it, and then upload it to run on the ESXi 5 server/host.

If you can locate a copy of the older, cold-clone cd you could try that. I forget what version it was, but it did great things for the old/older operating systems. Such as NT4 (did a P2V on an ancient box a few years back). If you go with the cold-clone option, then services on the original/physical system are not an issue. You just need to make sure the network drivers for the NIC in the physical box are included.

[continuum]

that sounds like you use Converter 4 or higher - use Converter 3.0.3 for Win2000 and NT 4

uninstall all agents that may already exist on the win2000 and NT and then try again with Converter 3.0.3

[dmalek]

Using converter 3.0.3 worked for me. Thank you!