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8 Replies Last post: Apr 20, 2009 10:45 PM by jokke
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Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine.

Apr 16, 2009 8:04 PM

Click to view td_sk's profile Novice td_sk 23 posts since
Jul 11, 2008

I am having a natron .Gho image of windows 2003.Can I restore the same image in virtual machine which can created.If posiable plaes advice i need which tool can be used.

Thanks in advance.

Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 17, 2009 12:24 AM
Click to view jokke's profile Expert jokke 324 posts since
Dec 20, 2008

You need to create an empty virtual machine. Easiest way is with vmware workstation. Be sure to allocate enough space on the virtual disk.

Boot the virtual machine with a bootcd that contains ghost. Restore the gho image when booted from the cd/iso.

Next, you need to change the disk controllers. Easiest way is to let vmware converter do it by choosing "configure machine". The manual way involves using the "Ultimate P2V" from a bartpe bootcd created with pebuilder. Such a bootcd would preferably have both the ghost and the p2v plugin.


Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 17, 2009 1:55 AM
Click to view jyvesd's profile Enthusiast jyvesd 47 posts since
Nov 13, 2007
You can use vmware converter to restore a gho image on a VM.
Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 17, 2009 5:12 AM
in response to: jyvesd
Click to view jokke's profile Expert jokke 324 posts since
Dec 20, 2008
And how will you do that with converter only?
Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 17, 2009 8:28 AM
in response to: jyvesd
Click to view continuum's profile Guru continuum 12,253 posts since
Dec 18, 2003
AFAIK *.gho files are not understood by Converter.
So you need to restore them like with real metal: boot Ghost-cd +restore image

___________________________________

description of vmx-parameters: http://sanbarrow.com/vmx.html
VMware-liveCD: http://sanbarrow.com/moa.html

Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 20, 2009 3:01 PM
Click to view iaydin's profile Lurker iaydin 2 posts since
Sep 30, 2005

This is extracted from "vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0 User's Guide". According to this, GHO images can be imported to VMs. You can find the details in the Guide, which is available at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/converter_pubs.html

Third-party virtual machines
or system images
n VMware Consolidated Backup (.vmx)
n Acronis True Image Echo 9.1 and 9.5, and Acronis True Image 10 (Home product)
(.tib)
n Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) 6.5, 7.0, 8.0,
and 8.0, LiveState Recovery 3.0 and 6.0 (.sv2i, .v2i or .iv2i)
n Norton Ghost version 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 14.0 (.gho)
n Parallels Desktop for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 (.pvs
and .hdd)
n Parallels Workstation 2.0 (.pvs)
n StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop, Server, SBS, IT, and so on, all versions (.spf)
n Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 (for Windows only), Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (for
Windows only) (.vmc)
n Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and 2005 R2 (.vmc)

Hope this helps.

Regards

Ilker


Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 20, 2009 3:11 PM
in response to: iaydin
Click to view qootec's profile Lurker qootec 1 posts since
Apr 20, 2009

I just tried your suggestion here:

  • Took a Ghost image with Ghost 11 of a standard Windows XP system.
  • Started the VMWare vCenter Converter Standalone and indicated that I wanted to convert a machine.
  • Selected the source type "backup image or third-party virtual machine". On the right-hand side, a kind of help menu indicates Ghost 9-14 as supported systems.
  • Unfortunately, when browsing to my image, I cannot select the .GHO file. The list contains several systems (vmc,pvs,vmxsv2i,sv2,spf,tib), but no gho. Selecting my GHO anyway causes an error message "Unsupported machine type".

Conclusion: I suppose this version of the converter does not support Ghost images anyway. Maybe only the Enterprise version does?

Johan

Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 20, 2009 4:03 PM
in response to: qootec
Click to view continuum's profile Guru continuum 12,253 posts since
Dec 18, 2003
I never heard about a version that could handle *.gho images

___________________________________

description of vmx-parameters: http://sanbarrow.com/vmx.html
VMware-liveCD: http://sanbarrow.com/moa.html

Reply Re: Can We restore the GHO image in virtual machine. Apr 20, 2009 10:45 PM
in response to: iaydin
Click to view jokke's profile Expert jokke 324 posts since
Dec 20, 2008

Just to clarify a few things;

Converter does support ghost images with the extension .sv2i, which utilizes the new vss based backup technology. Ghost images with the extension .gho is from before version 8.5 and 11 - 11,5 and uses a completely different non-vss-based technology, and is NOT supported as a 3rd party backup images to be imported into converter (and probably never will...).

The documentation is indeed misleading as one gets the impression that images from ghost version 11 is supported. That is not true and directly misleading. Version 11 and 11,5 with .gho extension is NOT supported.

It will require a workaround. First restore the gho image into a virtual machine when booted from a boodisk. Then let converter import the new virtual machine and let it configure machine.

They should state this is in the documentation

Joakim

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