VM Convert Drives Combine

[RParker]

Has anyone noticed that when you do a VM Convert direct to ESX server, it will take ALL the drives and combine them as 1 drive and partition the disk?

For example:

c: 10g

d: 25G

e: 15G

If I convert this machine with these drive sizes, and convert them to ESX server, the VM on the ESX server will be 1 large drive as 50G.

Is there a flag or some option on Convert that will make these separate drives? I don't want to resize a partition (besides the fact the performance could be better by utilizing separate drives -- across diff LUNS) just individual drives. Resizing a partition on a drive is potentially dangerous as it affects the entire drive. Catch my drift?

[admin]

Converter 3.0.1 does not have the option to specify creation of more than one virtual disk per physical disk. You would have to manually select individually partitions and run the process a couple of times and merge the resulting virtual disks into a single VM.

[13erla · Accepted solution]

yes this is part of the converter if your logical drives (raid or whatever) are partitioned then the conversion will be partitioned on 1 vmdk

the way to get around this is...

convert each drive separately into its own VM.. i normally do servera, serverb, serverc.

then create the master Server vm and attach those VMDK files.

this is the check list i use when p2ving might be helpful

-convert each drive separately if they are partitions on a single logical drive you can change the drive size during this conversion or after using ghost or extends

-create a new VM, and attach the existing drives from the separate vms

-migrate the server (powered off) to a new lun so that the names of the VMDKs are changed and cleaned up; once this is complete you can delete the (a,b,c) vms from the disk to clean up house

-you will have to convert the drives from buslogic to lsi. you will be prompted to convert them.

-make sure not to connect your nic until after you are ready to go live.

-boot into bios to start and get rid of all extra unneeded stuff (parallel, floppy, serial, etc) set boot order

-boot into the OS. and remove all non-present devices (cpu, parallel, serial, floppy, etc) At a CMD prompt type SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 and then DEVMGMT.MSC, then select Show Hidden Devices. Delete any non-present ports, they should be grayed out

-run regedit and find the HKLM\System\Current Control

Set\Services\ParPort branch, set it's startup type to 4

-now validate the HAL is correct (cpu) if you have allocated for 1 CPU then the HAL should be ACPI Uniprocessor PC. ACPI Multiprocessor PC for more than 1 VCPU. If the HAL is incorrect you can update the driver. Select I want to choose the driver then select the correct HAL.

[RParker]

Are you VM Ware employee by chance? This is an ugly ommision.. People may have a need to keep the drives separate... just FYI, you might want to mention this as a change the process.

I for one am not happy it works this way.... This is extra work.

[13erla]

sorry i am not an employee by any stretch of the imagination..

just a process i developed having gone through the growing pains of vmware converter 3.0 and now 3.0.1

another notible mention is that you should have a switch port that is auto negotiate. if the port is set to like 100full you will run into issues.. see this thread.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=84029&tstart=0

[admin]

Yes, I am as indicated by the logo next to my username. The ability to be able to select individual partitions from a given disk and separate them into new virtual disks has been requested by other users in the past, so it has been identified. You can add visibility and priority to the Converter product management team to this request by posting in the Feature Requests forum:

http://www.vmware.com/community/forum.jspa?forumID=26

Another requested feature is to be able to pick a Mapped SAN LUN as a destination instead of having Converter always create a .vmdk file.

[DanAndryszak]

I haven't tried yet, but can you create the vmdk files prior to migration?

The disk file creation, using static disks, takes a long time via the Converter tool.