Windows file server migration P2V (VMware Converter 4)

[vmquestions0]

We use VMWare ESX 3.5.

We would like to migrate a physical MS Windows file server to VMWare (ESX 3.5). The physical server has a C: drive of 40 GB and a D: drive of 300GB's

We would like to use VMWare converter, in order to migrate the server and expand the C: drive on for the virtual server to be 80GB, however we are worried about the 300 GB D: drive partition since this is going to take some time and while the P2V we could have some users accessing the shares (on the phyisical server) and modifiyng files during the migration. So if that happes there is a potencial risk of losing business data.

I have been told that the VMWare Converter 4 can do a live migration and once the P2V is completed it can track down the changes and then syncs them when you shut down the physical system.

I was wondering if someone is aware about this type of feature on VMConverter 4 and knows how to use it?

[AWo]

VMware converter can do a live migration. Depending on your OS (2000 or 2003) a reboot is required to have the open file agent installed (2000). 2003 uses VSS, it needs to be enabled then.

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

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[vmquestions0]

Hi,

I am aware of Converter being able to do migrations now I was wondering if once the initial P2V is completed if any files (SMB file shares) were modified by the users while the P2V process, could VConverter track down the changes and then syncs them when you shut down the physical system.

http://www.vmware.com/support/converter/doc/releasenotes_conv40.html

Hot cloning improvements to clone any incremental changes to physical machine during the P2V conversion process

Questions about it:

1.) Does anyone knows how to use it?

2.) If we use this could the partition be resized on the new Vmware machine?

[AWo]

2.) If we use this could the partition be resized on the new Vmware machine?

Yes, that is possible.

The manual http://www.vmware.com/pdf/converter_standalone_guide401.pdf reads on page 11: When you create a hot clone, the resulting virtual machine is not an exact copy of the source machine because processes continue to run on the source machine during conversion.

But you can involve something like robocopy to do the initial copy. If this is only a fileserver you should change its (the source server as this will go out of service) ID (SID, NetBIOS name, IP) for the last sync.

Or you do a cold (offline) clone.

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

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[vmquestions0]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, however I am not quite understanding it.

The current C: drive for the physical server is too small so we would like to resize the C: drive on the Virtual one.

The current server has a C: drive and also a D: drive of 300GB this is the reason why we would like to use the Hot cloning improvements to clone any incremental changes to physical machine during the P2V conversion process

However I don't know if we will be able to resize the C: drive while we are doing the P2V and using the Hot Cloning with incremental changes during the P2V.

I was wondering if someone can give advice.

[DSTAVERT]

There is an option to also track the changes. Once the copy has completed / shut down services on the source machine / copy the final changes / shut down the source machine and then power up the new VM.

[DSTAVERT]

Image of same

[vmquestions0]

Cool.

The deal here is if we will be albe to resize the C: drive on the VM to something bigger and leave the D: drive (300GB) with the same size while we are P2V the physical and then using the shync option?

Does anyone knows or tested before? I have not been able to run a test since I am out of the office. :smileysad:

[DSTAVERT]

I have done it but it only worked in my environment. You would absolutely want to run some tests. The configuration screen that I posted shows an editable services link. You would configure that to shut down the various services on the source machine to "quiet" the VM and allow the sync to do it's job. I have had it fail before. I don't remember the situation but I do believe it eventually got converted. I also had a lot less data to move.

[DSTAVERT]

Depending on what the server is doing you might want to consider taking the opportunity of setting up a new server VM. Use DFS to migrate the data to the new server.

[vmquestions0]

I also thought about using DFS, the file type should be fine since is just a file server. However I have Windows 2003 Server Ent. and DFS wasn't really the best for the particular release (it was really improved in the R2 release with DFSR).

But the real problem is that this is the file server that holds home drivers, and the different business shares, etc... so we would like to P2V and keep the same name, SID, etc...otherwise the scripts and AD needs to be reconfigured.

To my knowledge if I use DFS I need to introduce a new server and then set up the DFS links and replicas. In order to acomplish that I need a new server joined to the domain so different hostname, IP, SID etc...

[AWo]

You can resize the disks while migrating it by using the VMWare Converter. It doesn't only take care about the disk, it resizes the partition, also.

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

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