Customization fails when performing a cold clone

[DerekM]

I am fairly new to VMware and virtualization, but I am running into an issue attempting to change server name, IP address, and SSID when converting a Physical server using cold clone method. I do have the Sysprep files for Windows 2003 R2, extracted from the installation CD. I placed them in the correct folder on my Virtual Center 2.5 server, but of course I am using cold clone so I also placed them onto the Converter CD. I setup a new server name, set the IP address, and ask it to generate a new SSID in the Customization section of the wizard. The conversion runs and all appears to be working correctly. When I power on the new Virtual Machine I find that the Server name has not been changed, the IP address is set to DHCP, and the SSID has not been changed. My physical server is kicked out of the domain by the new VM.

I have not found much information about any additional steps that are needed to successfully customize a new VM. It is apparent that I am missing a step some where along the line. Anyone know where I can find a good document on customizing a VM when cold cloning, or know what I am doing wrong here? I have not tried hot clone from Virtual Center, I read that I should do cold clone of my Exchange 2007 server to convert it from physical server to VM. Thus, I want to get cold clone process working on my Terminal Servers before tackling Exchange. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[theanykey]

Can you try again but do not select option "automatically install vm-tools"

If it fails again, can you attach the logs?

[DerekM]

I should clarify, the conversion did not fail in the sense that it did create a Virtual Server from my physical server, but none of the customizations I wanted were made. The Virtual Server had the same name, SSID, and the IP address was set to DHCP. I did not select to have VMtools installed during the conversion. My goal is to be able to run the new Virtual Server and physical server at the same time, at least for a brief period of time, until there is a comfort level before converting the physical server into a VM Host.

I am planning on making another attempt, I have added the Sysprep files to the VMware Enterprise Converter CD and will point to these files on my next conversion. I had previously copied the sysprep files onto the physical server I am was converting. I will post the results of the next attempt.

[continuum]

Do you use a non-US windows ?

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[DerekM]

No non-windows Virtual Servers yet, the server I am attempting to convert runs Windows 2003 Server R2 on HP DL360 G5 server.

[theanykey]

Yes I understand. I have seen issues in older versions where tools is scheduled to install on the 1st bootup but so is sysprep which then conflict and one gets neglected. So if you already opted to not install tools then please attach the converter logs (located on the physical source in c:\windows\temp\vmware-temp\)

Keep in mind that you can simply manually run sysprep on the resulting VM.

[DerekM]

I corrupted the CDs I was using to do the "cold" conversion, I added the Sysprep files onto the CDs, and apparently this corrupted the CDs. I was getting a Blue Screen everytime I attempted to run another conversion. With that resolved by creating another clean Converter CD, I found that my issue was easily resolved by getting the correct Sysprep files. Windows 2003 R2 Server needs to have the "hotfix" which contains the newer version of Sysprep files. I had downloaded the "hotfix" a while ago, but did not realize that it contained new Sysprep files. Ran the conversion last night on one of my Terminal Servers, copied the new files onto the Terminal Server before running the Converter CD and it went smooth. The new Virtual Terminal Server was created on my Host, and upon first Power on the Sysprep did it's thing. I currently have both the physical and virtual Terminal Server running (with different names & IPs). Later in the week I will work on converting the physical to a Virtual Host, then start working on converting my Exchange 2007 server, that should be interesting.

Anyway, thanks for all the help.

Derek