Trying to conver Exchange 2003 to Virtual

[compguy101101]

I am having a horrid time trying to convert our exchange box to a virtual one to have for DR purposes. I have the new Converter 3.0 and although the two other servers that I have converted have converted flawlessly, the conversion of our exchange box is being stubborn and un willing.

I finally got it running last night by shutting down more services than I had before but still no such luck. I compared the services running on the box that converts flawlessly to the exchange box and killed any service on the exchange box that wasn't running or present on the box that will convert. I started the conversion at 5 pm and came in the morning and it was only at 22% and I had to cancel the conversion to get the server back up and running for the work day.

If anyone has any ideas as to what I can do to successfully convert the box to a virtual image please let me know. Also I am using the VMware server so I do not have the option to cold clone the exchange box.

[tgwinn]

I just converted our Exchange 2003 box a couple of days ago. I'm not certain why yours is having difficulties, but here's a few thoughts:

1) Do not resize your disks when converting.

2) Proir to converting, run the following batch file to stop all Exchange services:

rem To Stop all Exchange 2003 Services

pause

rem Stop System Attendant and all its dependent services.

net stop MSExchangeSA /y

rem Stop all IIS engines.

net stop IISAdmin /y

rem Stop the Exchange installable file system (ExIFS) driver.

net stop ExIFS

rem Stop SRS.

net stop MSExchangeSRS

pause[/b]

[compguy101101]

Thanks for the idea I will give it a try. I did resize the disks when I had tried it but all the services you are stopping in the scipt I believe that I had stopped before the attempt at converting. Hopefully this one works.

[admin]

If you don't resize, Converter by default uses block-level copying. Resizing forces a volume-level, file-level copy and that could be contributing to the problem.

So definitely try the recommended approach and preserve the disk size.

[compguy101101]

Well I used your script and no such luck. So I am going to try again but finish the rest of the services off that I had stoppe before. I had never written a script before and it took a little bit but I built off yours to finish off the rest of the services.

rem To Stop all Exchange 2003 Services

pause

net stop MSExchangeSA /y

net stop IISAdmin /y

net Stop ExIFS

net Stop MSExchangeSRS

NET STOP "Intel File Transfer"

NET STOP "Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)"

NET STOP "Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange"

NET STOP "Symantec Mail Security Spam Statistics"

NET STOP "Backup Exec Server" /y

pause

Call "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Converter\converter.exe"[/b]

My code is a bit sloppier but it seemed to go through the process when I tested it. Please let me know if I need to change anything on the coding because I plan on running it starting this Saturday Afternoon.

[tgwinn]

I should have pointed out that I got the script from Microsoft Technet. The page was entitled "How to Stop All Exchange Server 2003 Services on a Server":

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2b51d605-1dfd-4e7e-94e9-5dd27fc67d5d.aspx

Perhaps there are some related pages there that might be helpful.

[compguy101101]

Well I tried the conversion and it was a complete disaster. Didn't even get passed 1 %. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Quite frustrating. Now I am taking a different approach not sure if I am going to give the VMware a try again. I am going to try to create a backup in Backup Exec 11d and restore to my freshly installed 2003 virtualized server. Unless someone has an idea to convert my Exchange 2003 box then I am pretty much at a stand still at converting the box. Please give me any suggestions that you can think of. I don't think I can pull out much more hair.

[Tedinator]

I'm not sure of the exact term used for it, but I read somewhere that conversion of Exchange P2V should be done outside the OS. You create some sort of boot disk for the conversion & a utility converts the entire hard drives independent of the OS. Another option is a 3rd party utility that claims to do Exchange conversions far better & about 450% faster than VM Converter. It's available at www.invirtus.com and they have a 14 day trial version that lets you fully convert 3 servers for free. I purchased the VM Optimizer software which tremendously simplifies the process of compressing unused space & optimizing VM's, a process that's quite cumbersome without it. That software is frequently available from them at 50% off, making it only about $65, which is what I paid.

HTH,

Ted Cole

tcole@beenegarter.com

[compguy101101]

I also read what you are talking about with the boot disk, but I am only using the VMware Server. It does not allow for the creation of a boot disk. I would have to purchase a GSX or ESX VMware Server, can't recall which one specifically but I am trying to use what I have without having to purchase any additional software although from the looks of how things are going it seems that it may be inevitable. That invirtus.com thing may be what I need to use so I will give it a try and cross my fingers.

[Tedinator]

Sorry, didn't know you needed GSX/ESX to do the boot disk type conversion. I too am only using the free VM Server. Let me know your results w/ the trial version of Invirtus. I also need to do a P2V on my Exchange 2003 server soon. If all else fails, I guess I could create one from scratch, but that's a lot more work.

Thanks,

Ted