{"id":10187,"date":"2009-12-09T16:02:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T16:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10187"},"modified":"2009-12-09T16:02:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T16:02:03","slug":"vmm-p2v-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10187","title":{"rendered":"VMM P2V Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft System Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 includes the ability to do a P2V (physical-to-virtual) migration of Windows computers.&#160; This is usually the last critical step in a normal virtualisation project \u2013 take those physical servers that an audit identified as being candidates to be converted into virtual machines.&#160; The process scans the contents of the hard disk and converts them into VHD\u2019s.&#160; The machine specification is converted into a virtual machine configuration.<\/p>\n<p>The first step in all of this begins really when you are doing a feasibility study or sizing your virtualisation hosts and storage.&#160; You\u2019ll run something like Microsoft\u2019s MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) toolkit.&#160; Alternatively if you have already got Operations Manager 2007 deployed then you can install VMM 2008 R2 and wait a while before running the <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ee236438.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Virtualisation Candidates report<\/a>.&#160; That takes information from the continuous performance monitoring provided by OpsMgr.&#160; Or you can just run individual performance reports from OpsMgr \u2013 but you need to be careful about seeing both the details and the big picture when it comes to a manual interpretation of the statistics.&#160; And be careful about the process OpsMgr uses to store long term data.&#160; Spikes or sudden drops may not be apparent by the data aggregation.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have your Hyper-V 2008 R2 platform and VMM 2008 R2 tested, documented and in production then you can start your P2V process.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a list of the supported operating systems:<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>Operating System <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>VMM 2008 <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>VMM 2008 R2<\/u><\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4 (SP4) or later (offline P2V only)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4 or later (offline P2V only)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows XP 64-Bit Edition SP2 or later<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition (32-bit x86)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 x64 Standard Edition<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP1 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes (Requires SP2 or later.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2003 Web Edition<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Small Business Server 2003<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2008 Standard 32-Bit<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2008 Enterprise 32-Bit<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Server 2008 Datacenter 32-Bit<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Web Server 2008<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows 7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows 7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Windows Web Server 2008 R2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>No<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Yes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>You can use the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit (VSMT) or third-party solutions (cloning, e.g. s\/w from Acronis is said to be a successful approach) for converting computers running Windows NT Server 4.0.<\/p>\n<p>As if that isn\u2019t complicate enough then you have to consider how you are going to do the P2V process.&#160; There are two approaches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Online: VMM will deploy an agent to the machine to be converted.&#160; This is a temporary installation and does not require a license for the agent.&#160; The agent scans the machine for suitability for an online conversion.&#160; Upon success it will then use the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to grab file cleanly from the computer to create a new VHD for each disk in the machine.&#160; VSS is used because things like OS files, Exchange files, SQL files, etc can be copied cleanly.&#160; There\u2019s a few catches with this.&#160; (1) Not every version of (older) Windows has suitable VSS support.&#160; VSS is a relatively new technology still.&#160; (2) A P2V conversion is not instant.&#160; It takes time, during which some files, particularly database files like Exchange or SQL will change after they have been copied.&#160; That means the new VM won\u2019t have all the data. (3) Not all server applications, e.g. MySQL or Oracle, have a VSS writer\/engine.&#160; They cannot be grabbed cleanly.&#160; Once an online conversion is complete the source computer is left running.<\/li>\n<li>Offline: With this process VMM deploys a boot image (Windows PE) to the machine to be converted.&#160; The machine is reconfigured to boot from the boot image. The P2V job then runs.&#160; The complication with this approach is that you must ensure that all the required drivers for the original physical machine must be in your boot image.&#160; You can use the \u201cUse storage and network drivers from the following location\u201d option to supply additional drivers.&#160; Because WinPE is used the physical machine must have at least 512MB RAM.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Should you use and online or offline conversion process?<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>Operating System on Source Computer <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>P2V (Online) <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>P2V (Offline) <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"bottom\">\n<p><strong><u>Not Supported<\/u><\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 (SP4)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows Server 2003 operating systems with Service Pack 1 (SP1)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition operating system<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows XP operating systems with SP1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition operating system<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Windows Vista operating system<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>The Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 operating system<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">&#160;<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Again, you can use a cloning solution to work with those unsupported operating systems.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another basic rule of thumb:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Any machine with static data (web server) can be safely done with an online conversion.&#160; The server stays operational and responsive to users.<\/li>\n<li>Any machine with changing data (domain controller, Exchange, database, file, etc) should be converted with the offline approach to avoid data loss.&#160; It does mean taking the server offline during an announced outage window.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Is there any preparation work you should do?&#160; Yes.&#160; Remove unwanted files.&#160; Defrag the hard disk (schedule it in Windows Scheduled tasks, e.g. defrag C:).&#160; Finally, remove any hardware integrated software, for example a HP server should have the HP ProLiant Support Pack from the server prior to conversion.&#160; Failing to remove hardware integrated software will cause the new VM to blue screen or have failing services at start up.&#160; You can do a safe mode boot and uninstall the relevant software after the P2V conversion.<\/p>\n<p>When the process runs a new dynamic VHD is created by default for each physical hard disk.&#160; You cannot reduce the size of these disks.&#160; If you need them to be smaller then use a 3rd party solution to do this before the conversion.<\/p>\n<p>When the job is complete VMM will add the Integration Components.<\/p>\n<p>What about a strategy?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identify virtualisation candidates.<\/li>\n<li>Identify required drivers for offline conversions and add them to your VMM driver pool.<\/li>\n<li>Prepare the physical computer, e.g. do a defrag and double check anti virus, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure all backups of the physical computer have worked OK and that you can recover from any disaster.<\/li>\n<p>   <em><\/em>    <\/p>\n<li><em>Maybe<\/em> do an online conversion to test the process for the server in question.&#160; Place the new VM on a test virtual network.&#160; Make sure it boots up OK and performs OK.&#160; This won\u2019t affect the production physical server.<\/li>\n<li>Perform final P2V preparations, e.g. uninstall hardware integrated software.<\/li>\n<li>Perform a suitable conversion (probably offline)of the physical computer.&#160; Leave it offline.&#160; Bring the VM online and test it.<\/li>\n<li>Put the new VM into production.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure backups are working OK for the new VM.<\/li>\n<li>Leave the physical server powered off for a pre-agreed timeframe before removing\/recycling the physical computer.&#160; You never know what will happen, e.g. require a <\/li>\n<p> reversal of the process to V2P (not in VMM) of the server.<\/ul>\n<p>Notes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FAT\/FAT32 cannot be converted using Online P2V<\/li>\n<li>You can do a P2V of virtual machines, however VMware users will want to use the V2V approach.<\/li>\n<li>You cannot do a P2V of an in-place cluster.&#160; However you can convert each cluster node and then create a new failover cluster.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div style=\"padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px\" id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:0926f126-6b7c-4e11-b49d-5f2bf2ba0a47\" class=\"wlWriterEditableSmartContent\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Hyper-V\" rel=\"tag\">Hyper-V<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/VMM\" rel=\"tag\">VMM<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Virtualisation\" rel=\"tag\">Virtualisation<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft System Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 includes the ability to do a P2V (physical-to-virtual) migration of Windows computers.&#160; This is usually the last critical step in a normal virtualisation project \u2013 take those physical servers that an audit identified as being candidates to be converted into virtual machines.&#160; The process scans the contents &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10187\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;VMM P2V Migration&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[181,195,196],"class_list":["post-10187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hyper-v","tag-hyper-v","tag-virtualisation","tag-vmm"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}