VMware P2V Help.

M

MySongRanHills

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 27, 2011
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Need to convert a physical windows server 2008 box into a VMware VM. Is there a way to do this with only one computer? Ideally I'd convert the 2008 box to VM and back up the .vmdk,etc. to an external hard drive, so that I can then install ESXi to USB and format the existing windows server 2008 HDD to VMFS datastore which I'd then move converted VM to.

Is this possible with only one computer? Most guides I see seem to suggest an existing ESXi install with vCenter and then install converter on target machine with both machines contributing to the process.

Really appreciate if someone can point me in the right direction here as I have never preformed P2V
 
yep, real easy. install converter on the OS, launch it and select VMware workstation what you are converting to. from there you can select the drive you'd like to put the images on.
 
But then you'd have to use converter again so you can use it in ESXi. If you have a spare laptop I'd install converter on that and plug up your usb drive with the vmguest.
 
Only bad thing about this is, if something went wrong, you do not have the original box to keep running. If you have any other computer, i'd at least use vmplayer to boot it up and make sure it works prior to overwriting your current server. Heck ESXI will actually install on a lot of workstations if you even want to do that, just as a stopgap to make sure everything is fine with the Virtual machine before you blow the physical one away.
 
Here is how I would tackle this, assuming I had time to "play" with it.
1) Download / install VMWare Converter Standalone on the server to be P2V'd
2) Run through the conversion, selecting the options:
2a) Source Type: Powered On Machine
2b) "This local machine"
3) Destination type: VMWare Workstation - give it a name and save it somewhere. This will create a VMDK and VMX file, so no need to convert "again"
4) Options leave at default unless you really know what you're doing

5) Setup an NFS share on any other running computer with gigabit network, copy the folder for the newly P2V'd machine there
6) Install ESX to a thumb drive and reboot the server, booting from this thumb drive (maybe dismount the HDD to be safe).
7) Config ESX as normal - mount the temp NFS share and add the P2V'd machine to inventory
8) Power on the Vm - if it asks (it shouldn't, but might) say "I copied it" and let it power on.
9) Verify all expected services are available in whatever manner you want to test it completely (I'd advise, if possible, running it as-is for about a week so users can verify).

If that's all good, you could then format the local disk in the server, power down the running VM and copy the folder to the VMFS localdisk datastore from the NFS one. Power the VM back on again and once again verify all services are running as expected.

Edit to add that if you most literally only have 1 computer, running the VM in VMPlayer or similar could work, but I don't know how you'd UAT that.
 
Eulogy said:
Here is how I would tackle this, assuming I had time to "play" with it.
1) Download / install VMWare Converter Standalone on the server to be P2V'd
2) Run through the conversion, selecting the options:
2a) Source Type: Powered On Machine
2b) "This local machine"
3) Destination type: VMWare Workstation - give it a name and save it somewhere. This will create a VMDK and VMX file, so no need to convert "again"
4) Options leave at default unless you really know what you're doing

5) Setup an NFS share on any other running computer with gigabit network, copy the folder for the newly P2V'd machine there
6) Install ESX to a thumb drive and reboot the server, booting from this thumb drive (maybe dismount the HDD to be safe).
7) Config ESX as normal - mount the temp NFS share and add the P2V'd machine to inventory
8) Power on the Vm - if it asks (it shouldn't, but might) say "I copied it" and let it power on.
9) Verify all expected services are available in whatever manner you want to test it completely (I'd advise, if possible, running it as-is for about a week so users can verify).

If that's all good, you could then format the local disk in the server, power down the running VM and copy the folder to the VMFS localdisk datastore from the NFS one. Power the VM back on again and once again verify all services are running as expected.

Edit to add that if you most literally only have 1 computer, running the VM in VMPlayer or similar could work, but I don't know how you'd UAT that.
Click to expand...

Thanks a ton! this is pretty close to what I was hoping I could do. After Converter Standalone creates the VM files I'm planning to copy them to USB HDD and once ESXi is up and running I'll upload the VM to the datastore through vSphere client. Is that fine?

I've got access to multiple computers, just not one to spare to install vCenter, etc.

Also plan do Acronis back up b4 I mess with anything.
 
You can upload them to the datastore just using the vSphere client running on any machine. The USB drive likely won't show up in ESX as a datastore - so for step 8 you'll need the VMDK/VMX on an NFS share somewhere (pretty much any Windows machine with enough diskspace and network connection should work for testing - would be more ideal to have one with an SSD or fast HDD and 1Gb network). Mount that NFS share as a datastore and run the VM from there for testing.

After testing is completed sucessfully, dismount the NFS share, get the local disk to show up as the VMFS datastore, and then use the vsphere client to upload the files from the Windows machine to the VMFS datastore. It'll take a good long while, but it'll get there.

Hope that's helped ya.
 
Eulogy said:
You can upload them to the datastore just using the vSphere client running on any machine. The USB drive likely won't show up in ESX as a datastore - so for step 8 you'll need the VMDK/VMX on an NFS share somewhere (pretty much any Windows machine with enough diskspace and network connection should work for testing - would be more ideal to have one with an SSD or fast HDD and 1Gb network). Mount that NFS share as a datastore and run the VM from there for testing.

After testing is completed sucessfully, dismount the NFS share, get the local disk to show up as the VMFS datastore, and then use the vsphere client to upload the files from the Windows machine to the VMFS datastore. It'll take a good long while, but it'll get there.

Hope that's helped ya.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Thank you.

One last question though, what version of Workstation should I select? I know 10 is the most current, but I think ESXi only supports VM version 8 and below....I don't know if workstation 10 = virtual machine 10???
 
What version of esxi are you going to run?
5.0=version 8
5.1=version 8 or 9
5.5=version 8, 9 or 10

You have to run the Web client (for the most part) if using hw version 10 and esxi 5.5. There is not much to be gained when going from version 9 to 10.
 
New problem. Ran converter (target Wokstation 8.xx) on a test windows 8.1 box uploaded it to a datastore. Wouldn't start in original format as others have indicated. Used vmkfstools over ssh to convert the disk to one ESXi can handle.

Well it booted - sort of. It is stuck in automatic repair loop. Tried repair with install disk and bootrec /fixMBR, bootrec /Fixboot, bootrec /rebuildBCD, and chkdsk /r c:

bootrec /rebuildBCD returns 0 windows installations found even though I can browse C:\ and see the windows folders..

Didn't realize there was so much to this. Going to run another conversion and see if maybe something went wrong in the process. Any other ideas?
 
Did the physical box have a raid setup?

try converting it to player or workstation onto the 8.1 machine, then getting that going, redo to confirm, then convert that to the esxi box
 
peanuthead said:
You have to run the Web client (for the most part) if using hw version 10 and esxi 5.5.
Click to expand...

This isn't true.
the 5.5U2 vSphere thick client can be used to modify (the majority of) hardware settings on a hardware version 10 VM.
 
Cant you just convert straight to the esx machine?? If your installing the converter directly ON the box you want to virtualize. I swear I've done it before. On the destination you just select the ESX box IP and login....

update: I have mine open (VMWare Convertor Standalone v5.5.2) and I see that option..
 
minuderstood first post. I see the reformat details... I should read slower
 
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