VCenter Converter - Question About the Process

[MikeGIllinois]

Thanks to the help I got out here from you friendly people I'm currently migrating an old (but loyal and trusty) Windows Advanced Server 2000 to my ESXi server.

My question is about what happens during the conversion that the VCenter Converter is currently running. I'm converting about 100 gigs of stuff. The estimated competion time is about 17 hours.

There's a C: drive, 😧 drive, and E: drive. When I do this for a client I wonder if there will be data loss. Specifically, suppose that a service runs on C: that collects data. In my case this is true. I have a product called Spamlion going which filters e-mail before it goes to my Exchange Server.

Once the C: drive conversion is complete and, I assume, the Spamlion service is restarted by the Converter, won't e-mails that come into this server *not* be copied over to the .vmdk I am creating? More simply, if I were to save a few .pdf's to the C: drive after the C: drive was converted wouldn't that data *not* make it over to the .vmdk?

When I migrate a company's Small Business Server to an ESXi server will I have to shut down inbound e-mail and access to the server during the conversion to avoid having users save data on the SBS before I bring the ESXi virtual machine up?

Thanks much!

Mike Gallery

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Converter does NOT handle services restart or application consintency.

You must hadle this cases.

The right way is stop all services before, start the conversion, and then start the VM (reconfigure it to fix IP and remove old drivers) and then check if services start again.

To convert a SBS or a AD DC you must stop the AD, so on 2003 or previous you must run in AD restoration mode.

Andre

[bilalhashmi]

I agree with the above post on disabling the service before doing the P2V. That will be ur best bet.

Follow me @ Cloud-Buddy.com

[MikeGIllinois]

"Converter does NOT handle services restart or application consintency"

Thank you for your help.

During my running of Converter, which I ran on my 2000 Server, there was a section in Converter which detailed all the services on my server. The header said that "the following services will be stopped" and there were little boxes next to those services. A second column had "destination" on it and made further reference to services.

What was that about? I took it to mean that Converter was going to stop all the marked services during the transition.

Thanks again.

Mike

[AndreTheGiant]

During my running of Converter, which I ran on my 2000 Server, there was a section in Converter which detailed all the services on my server. The header said that "the following services will be stopped" and there were little boxes next to those services. A second column had "destination" on it and made further reference to services.

Which version of Converter are you using?

Never notice it.

PS: thread has been moved to the Converter area.

Andre