Virtual to Virtual (V2V) conversion of Exchange Server 2003 (with SP2)

[mapshah]

I have an Exchange Server 2003 (with SP2) Front End Server virtual machine running on Windows Server 2003 R2 (with SP2) on the ESXi 4.1 host. I have deployed a new ESXi 5 host where I need to move this Exchange virtual machine because I need to carry out the maintenance activity on the old ESXi 4.1 host. Once the maintenace activity gets over I'll remove ESXi 4.1 from the old host and install ESXi 5 and move this virtual machine back to the old host.

Please suggest what options from the below or other than the below should I do to have seamless movement of this Exchange VM.

1. Should I shut down the Exchange Server 2003 VM (which is running on ESXi 4.1 host), copy the VM folder as it is and upload/move it to ESXi 5 and start the VM? Will it work without any issue?

2. I installed P2V converter on a physical Windows Server 2008 R2 server. I connected to the ESXi 4.1 host with VMware Client and shut down the virtual machine to convert it to seamlessly move it to the temporary ESXi 5 host. The converter was ready to move the machine to temp ESXi 5 host but also showed the warning message that the host did not find sysprep for Windows 2003. Also "install vmware tools after conversion" option was disabled. "Recongifure the VM" option was selected by default. I'm not sure if I should allow the converter to do a sysprep on the converted Exchange Server 2003 VM.

What is the best method to move this Exchange VM to the temp ESXi 5 host and then move it back to the original host (which will be the new ESXi 5 host)? This Exchange VM is the front end Exchange server which is also the OWA and RPC over HTTP server.

[virtualdutch]

1. Connect your ESXi 5 host to the VMFS datastore wich contains the virtual machine.

2. Shutdown the Virtual Machine on the ESXi 4 host.

3. Remove the Virtual Machine from inventory (not delete from datastore!).

4. Add the Virtual Machine to the ESXi 5 host.

5. Power On the Virtual Machine.

Hopefully this information is useful

[MauroBonder]

Hi,
If you´ve vcenter and shared storege to same Hosts VMware, you can do VMotion without power off this virtual machine.
Once that you´ve vcenter with DRS configured, set to manual, how safety.

Now, if you don´t have vcenter or shared storage to same hosts, use converter with this virtual machine powered off.

Good luck

[mapshah]

Thanks for your reply. I'd like to inform the following

1. I'm not using the VCenter and the shared storage. The Exchange VM running on the old ESXi 4.1 host is running on the hard disk of the server.

2. The Temp ESXi 5 host where I would like to move this Exchange VM also is a separate server having its own hard disks. I want to move that Exchange VM to this server temporarily.

3. My query was if I do the virtual to virtual conversion of the Exchange VM, the P2V converter does the sysprep. Will the Exchange VM boot and work normally after the coversion and the sysprep is done?  

4. Since it is the Exchange front end server, there are no mailbox residing on the server and the total used disk space (C & D) is 20 GB.

Please suggest.