What's the proper way to migrate

[littleantz77]

Hi,

I have a windows 2008 std with Hyper V with 2 hard disk on it.

I am planning to move to ESXi.

I backup all my data on disk 2 and I am planning to reformat the disk 1 for ESXi. My host told me that data on drive 2 will also be wiped out when I move to vSphere. Here is the exact words they told me...

"It has been brought to my attention that the secondary drive may well be  wiped when you try to add it in vSphere, loosing all your data.

Please advise as to how you would like to continue."

My question now is how can I make my Drive 2 becomes available on vSphere so I can import my HyperV Guest Os.

What is the proper procedure to migrate?

Thanks

[marcelo_soares · Accepted solution]

I would try using VMware Converter to do the job: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_converter_sta...

Have you considered it?

[Sreejesh_D]

ESXi installer will wipe out all local volumes except VMFS volumes during the installation, its an expected behavior. Hence the option for us is removing disk2 while installing ESXi and connect it after the installation is completed.

However, it doesn't make much sense if Disk 2 is formatted with a file system which is not supported with ESXi, like NTFS.

Its better to take Hyper-V backups into ESXi compatible format like OVF and import after installing ESXi.

[littleantz77]

However, it doesn't make much sense if Disk 2 is formatted with a file system which is not supported with ESXi, like NTFS.

The disk was formatted by Win 2008 that makes it NTFS. The same disk will need to be mounted to ESXi. I removed the drive and mount it after ESXi installed. When I tried to add it on datastore, it gives warning of wiping the data. What doesn't make sense to me know is how can I import my HyperV Guest OS stored on NTFS volume if ESXi will wipe its content when I add the volume as datastore.

Its better to take Hyper-V backups into ESXi compatible format like OVF and import after installing ESXi.

HyperV is gone now. I only have the NTFS disk containing its Guest OSes. Is this still importable?

Thanks

[DeepakNegi420]

I would do the same thing as marcelo has suggested, You may use the Vmware standalone converters to migrate them. You can also try WInimage to convert the VHD files to VMDK.

helpful links::

http://www.sertec.ca/howtos/Howto-Convert-VHD-to-VMDK-Partition-types.html

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-convert-and-import-vhd-to-vmdk-vmware/

[Sreejesh_D]

we cant add Disk 2 as VMFS datastore without wiping the existing NTFS. ESXi supports only VMFS and NFS filesystem for datastore.

Since Disk2 has NTFS, try adding it to a windows machine. In windows its should be detected as Drive like D:, E:.

From windows use VMware Converter for converting Hyper-V VM files (.vhd) to VMware format .vmdk. Converter will help you in migrating the VM too.

Please find more details on converter here.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

[iw123]

Can you put the disk with your guest VMs into another windows server, then you will be able to access the files. You can then use vm converter to convert the vms.

ESX will not be able to read the disk formatted as NTFS.