Choice between Cold and Hot Cloning ?

[TonyJK]

Hi,

We would like to know which way is better - Cold and Hot Cloning ?

We are going to perform a P2V a Windows 2003 Server that has been corrupted before (i.e. Repair Windows OS). We think that it is better to use Cold Cloning as it will not change anything in the physical server just in case of P2V fails.

However, we find that the Cold Boot CD has already been phased out. It seems that VMWare recommends us to use the Hot Cloning method. Is it correct ? Is there any way to remove those changes (it should be the agent and log file for P2V) if P2V fails ?

Your advice is sought.

Thanks

[mittim12]

I don't see any issue with the hot cloning. I do think it's a SQL box or something that is running an application with a lot of change you should stop that particular application to perform the clone. If the p2v does fail then the original machine is still up and running with no changes outside of the converter agent.

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[pcerda]

Hi

You can still use the Cold Boot CD from previous versions of vCenter Converter.

About the hot cloning, it's recommendable for servers without transactional services like Databases or Exchange Server. For example you can convert an application server without any issue.

If you want to make a hot cloning of a database server or any other transactional server, it's recommendable to stop the services in order to assure the integrity of the services and data.

Anyway, the cold cloning it's a safer technique if you are able to schedule the required downtime of the servers to be converted.




Regards / Saludos

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Patricio Cerda !http://www.images.wisestamp.com/linkedin.png!

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[TonyJK]

Just out of curiosity, since cold cloning still applies to database server, is there any reason why VMware stops rolling out Cold Clone CD ?

[brandonesbach]

Patricio: Superb! Now, how do we get Cold Clone since it isn't available on download anymore??

[continuum]

simple: create one yourself - easiest way is to check out the building kit I offer on my site - see

http://sanbarrow.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1544




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VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[semacore]

I'd love to know where can I find it myself.

I just spent about an hour on the support line with vmware and most of the reps I spoke to never even heard of the coldclone.iso.

For legacy machines the coldclone product just works better but the cd I was using got damaged.

I can find it on other sites but if I am a licenced user why run the risk of downloading a version that could have been tampered with?

[continuum]

the constructionkit you can download from my site is no tampered version of the original.

It has been created from scratch as I find the original one simply not good enough for my needs




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[semacore]

Thanks but I was lucky enough to find my old coldclone.iso

The product is one of the more useful utilities that vmware created so I have no idea why it's been placed in the software equivilent of witness protection.

[semacore]

Tony

Now that my own issue is solved I will address your original question... I would think that the best strategy is to do both a hot clone and a cold clone. Storage is cheap... convert the system using both methods.

I would run coldclone first... I just trust it more not to change the files on my drives. Admittedly I am not sure if this assumption is correct.

The good thing about coldclone is that it will ignore bad sectors. I just ran it on a 10 year old PC that I needed to retrieve old email from and it worked great. The drive on that computer was failing and coldclone ignored the bad sectors. So far no major issues with the data. I did have to scrounge around for some old ram though because I coldclone needs 264mb of ram to run and the whole cloning process took about 18 hours to run.

So far it seems to be working fine.

Jeff

[continuum]

you are a lucky guy - usually a coldclone will have problems with bad sectors

On really bad disks i usually use "unstopable copier" - or a dd-rescue




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VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[brandonesbach]

What about Win2k8 though? That seems to be the biggest bugbear by far..

[continuum]

whats the problem with 2008 ?

I usually do win7 and 2008 r2 manually - like I described here http://sanbarrow.com/p2v2008r2.html

and never had any issues.

The latest Converter 4.3 should also be able to hotclen 2k8

IMHO most reliable procedure is to coldclone with vmware-vdiskmanager and then patch in a second step




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

[brandonesbach]

Hotclone doesn't work at all on 2008 for me. 2008 R2 works ok, with a few adjustments to the vm after the conversion is done.

[continuum]

I do coldclones most of the times so I don't know if 2008 hotclones are reliable ???




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VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook