Converter Standalone and Windows 2008 R2

[Webio]

Hello,

can someone tell me if Converter Standalone supports Windows 2008 R2 (migrating Windows which is turned on)? If it's not then when we could expect to be supported?

Thanks

[IamTHEvilONE]

Unless there is some drastic change in how Windows 2008 server works, I would hope Converter works.

You'd need to use some of the newer versions tho:

1 - standalone 4.0.0 or above

2 - plugin 4.0.3 (vCenter 2.5) or 4.1.0 (vCenter 4.0)

Regards,

EvilOne

VMware vExpert 2009

NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.

[Webio]

I think during converting working Windows there is issue with 100mb partition which is created during system installation and can be used for some recovery functions.

EDIT: There is one more issue. When VM is turned off and I try to move it to another ESXi server using vConverter (source: VMware Infrastructure virtual machine) I'm getting error "Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine" when I try to select it and press Next. To solve this problem I'm changing Guest operating system profile from Windows Server 2008 R2 experimental to Windows Server 2008 (both 64bit).

EDIT2: I'm using vConverter Standalone (Version 4.0.1 | 161434 - 05/21/09).

[IamTHEvilONE]

Yeah, there is something pretty specific for Windows 2008 R2 that has changed things. It's only supported on ESX 4.0 and has a pretty unique VMX file.

But if there is some unique partition that is created by Windows 2008 R2 64-bit. Can you get a screen capture of this? I don't have a virtual machine around here to play with right now, but I will try later on.

Regards,

EvilOne

VMware vExpert 2009

NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.

[Webio]

When you try to install Windows 2008 R2 and select empty drive installer will "tell" you that some partition must be created for some reason I don't remember what exactly but there is created 100mb partition on drive where you select to install system. I had some pretty big problems to use wbadmin to backup this partition too. This is my solution for this:

<span class="typ">Wbadmin<span class="pln"> start backup <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">backupTarget<span class="pun">:\<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun"><span class="typ">Backup<span class="pln"> <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">include<span class="pun">:\?<span class="typ">Volume<span class="pun">{<span class="lit">7daf776e-64b8<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">11de<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">9959<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">806e6f6e6963<span class="pun">},<span class="pln">C<span class="pun">:,<span class="pln">D<span class="pun">:<span class="pln"> <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">vssFull <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">quiet

I'm attaching screenshot from disk manager.

[Webio]

Hello,

anything new?

[bonne1]

Seing the same issue on Win2k8R2.

Regards, Lars.

[IamTHEvilONE]

Simply put, Windows 2008 R2 is not supported with Converter at this time.

I wouldn't expect support for it until there is a new release or something like that.

Regards,

EvilOne

VMware vExpert 2009

NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.

[colin_macd]

When you try to install Windows 2008 R2 and select empty drive installer will "tell" you that some partition must be created for some reason I don't remember what exactly but there is created 100mb partition on drive where you select to install system.

</div>

Not really related to the OP but that 100MB partition is created to support BitLocker should that be desired at some point down the road... BitLocker (and any full-disk encryption system) needs an unencrypted stub to kick off the boot process.

Alternately, simply assigning a drive letter to this partition should clear up any VSS related issues

[bonne1]

If you change of OS setting in ESX to "not R2", convert it, and then change back the OS to "R2" again after conversion, it should work.

Vh, Lars.

[stfconsulting]

GREAT TIP!

[cplock]

No luck with standalone or installed vmware converter 4.0.2. Standalone says 'unable to identify operating system'. and installed has VSS error. I seem to be doing better from vSphere server when running converter remotely and will report progress. Btw I probably have prevented myself from ever using bitlocker maybe, but I was able to trick the system into only making only one partion (but who knows, maybe why I'm having standalone converter problems). During install, after adding a partition, I delete my partition and resize the 100mb system partition to max and use that partition.

[BrentonAllen]

While attempting to copy a Template machine from one Standalone ESX 4.0 host to another. I got the same error, that it could not identify the hardware when it was specified as Server 2008 R2. I changed the OS type to 2008 x64 but, I found that I needed to un-install the NIC within VMware and Reinstall for the OS to identify. Also it did not carry over the HDD as a SCSI device instead installed as IDE, causing many issues with re-sizing the HDD. I am going to try and create another VM on the target machine and copy my original .VMDK files from the template using FastSCP. I will update on the results.

[continuum]

when using Converter against 2008 R2 VMs set the guestOS to Win 2008 64 first - then it should work




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

[BrentonAllen]

I tried the method that you outlined but it did not create the hardware correctly. I found that if I create a new VM and then copy the .VMDK files to the directory of the new VM (using fastSCP) I could add the correct HDD. It isn't as neat as the converter but it does the trick.