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samuk
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P2v Best Practices to ensure a clean working migraiton

Hi,

Running Vsphere on two ESX hosts attached to an EVA SAN.

We have a number of machines that need to be migrated to the Virtual environment.

What is th process for this using Vmware converter?

The migration process will take place out of hours. so not sure what the best way to ensure a successfull migration?

Thanks in advance

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a2alpha
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Download the VMware convertor from here

Extract it and grab the coldclone.iso

Burn the image with something like this

Hope this helps,

Dan

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a2alpha
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You have two options the hot migration or the cold migration. I would recommend the cold migration for best results, this is using the coldclone.iso cd and booting from it.

I would also run something like ccleaner and delete temp files and temp internet files, you can also resize the disks to more reasonable sizes. I would normally tick the box to create a new disk for each partition, as this makes it a bit easier to change things within virtualcenter in needed later. Once converted into a VM, install the VMware tools, and remove any unneeded software, the dell / hp etc specific software.

Also go into device manager and clear the now unused disconnected devices as per HERE

Reboot the virtual machine and confirm all services are up

Put in the IP address etc as a new network card will be in the Network Adapters section.

This seems to works for us.

samuk
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Thanks for the imformative reply.

I have never done cold migrations before. How do i create this ISO CD to boot from?

Sam

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a2alpha
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Download the VMware convertor from here

Extract it and grab the coldclone.iso

Burn the image with something like this

Hope this helps,

Dan

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pramodupadhyay5
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u can also take help from the following notes....

1. Agent Installation Location

• Locally: Install Converter and agent directly on source

machine if converting directly into ESX Server

• Remotely: Connect to source machine over network to

install agent

2. Agent Installation

• Use local administrator account

• Avoid domain accounts that have restrictive policies

• Allow reboot for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 sources

3. Machine Preparation

• Do not deactivate services or harden security

Workstation service

Server service

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service

Volume Shadow Copy service (Windows

2003 or XP)

• Ensure sufficient free disk space (at least 200MB)

• Mirrored or striped volumes across multiple disks should

be broken

• Dynamic disks with utility partitions should use cold

cloning

• Disable Windows Simple File Sharing (Windows XP only)

• Disable anti-virus software

• Defrag hard disks

• Shutdown any un-needed Windows Services

• Clean-up any temporary files and un-needed data

• Run chkdsk

• Keep users off if possible

• Power off VM if not using hot cloning

• VCB VM exports need editing prior to import

Edit virtual disk filenames inside

.vmx

Rename filenames for .vmdk files to

match those listed in .vmx

Edit index .vmdk file to change

references to span files

4. Network Preparation

• Open TCP/UDP ports 139, 445, and 902 (Converter 3.0.0) or

443 (Converter 3.0.1)

• Open network ports between source and destination

Alternative is to create a VM

visible to source, copy VM files to location visible to destination, and import

VM

• Use FQDN to connect to both source and VI3

5. Converter Preparation

• Run on OS greater than or equal to source if source is

VM and powered off, or

Symantec Livestate System Image6. Cloning

• Starter edition limitations and workarounds

Cannot remote hot clone directly

into VI3

-

Workaround 1: install Converter on source machine

-

Workaround 2: select standalone VM as destination, and then import VM to VI3

using two steps

Cannot run multiple tasks

concurrently

-

Workaround: run multiple copies of Converter

Cannot cold clone

-

Workaround: create new VM, use third-party cloning application such as Ghost,

and run Converter configure

• Do not resize volume for fastest clone speed (block-level

copying)

• Resize volumes if source disks have inefficient

utilization (resorts to file-level copying)

• Use cold-cloning disk-based cloning (not volume-based)

for non-Windows systems

• Use hot cloning for Windows NT 4.0 systems to avoid NTFS

upgrade

• Destination needs to be writeable

7. Configure

• Avoid cloning utility partitions

• Check partition numbers in boot.ini

• Automatic “Install VMware Tools” option is only available

for ESX Server VMs

8. Clean-Up Prior to Power On

• Edit VM settings according to desired goal

Number of vCPUs

Add/Delete USB devices

Add/Delete Serial and parallel

devices

Remove Floppy drive if not needed

SCSI controller type (BusLogic vs.

LSI Logic)

• OEM source may require license activation

SMBIOS.reflectHost = “TRUE” in .vmx

may avoid reactivation

Requires destination host to have

same hardware

9. Clean-Up After Power On

• Detect hardware

VMware Tools installation may hang

if hardware not detected

• Allow reboots to occur

Detect hardware and VMware Tools

installation

• Verify HAL and change if necessary

• Remove non-present old hardware

CMD prompt type set

DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Next type DEVMGMT.MSC and select

Show Hidden Devices

Delete any old grayed out

non-present hardware

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a2alpha
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makes a good point that I missed. Changing the vCPUs and Memory and removing any unused devices from the Virtual Machine edit settings section, (normally USB and serial ports in our case!)

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aneeshkem
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Do you have anything in detail which describes below point and is it still a road block in latest versions?

Mirrored or striped volumes across multiple disks should be broken

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scott28tt
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@aneeshkem 

Rather than resurrecting a 12-year old thread, you might want to create a new one in the correct area for Converter Standalone: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Converter-Standalone-Discussions/bd-p/2505

 


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