Capturing an image from a windows 2000 server machine during production

[tractng]

Hello,

We are looking to capture an image of a windows 2000 server (with sp4) that has sql standard 2005 installed on it. I have done a few machines with windows 2003 running during production while I used the converter and had no problems. Does anybody have experience with windows 2000? I know on windows 2000, a reboot is necessary.

We are bringing the image into a test environemt to test the upgrade of the OS to windows 2003. When satisfied, we will redo the same process and have ESXi host the machine.

Btw, the converter is version 3.03.

Thanks,

Tnt

[AnsgarOnTVE]

Hello,

I did a P2V with a windows 2000 server machine when I consolidated my servers. I can't remember if I had to reboot the server 2000.

Anyway I installed the vmware converter (don't know which 3.x version) directly on the server. After P2V I could not start the vm successfully, but this happened to other machines (i.e. windows 2003 server) as well. In that case I deleted the vm except of the vmdk and setup a new vm using the excisting vmdk. After that I had no problems starting the vm.

Regards

Ansgar.

[benma]

If you install the converter Agent on Windows 2000 you have to reboot the machine.

P2V with Windows 2000 works fine!

[JoeLyons]

Hi,

I've done multiple p2v on win 2000 and most of the time I had to reboot for the agent install but not always.

You mention SQL, you should stop all the SQL services before doing the p2v or consider a cold clone.

When ever I had probelems with P2v a cold clone worked for me.

Joe

Remember to back EVERYTHING up before you change ANYTHING

[tractng]

Hello,

I did a quick test with a server that wasn't in production. There were two reboots required (probably the agents installed/removed). It worked fine without stopping any services.

Can you tell me about the cold clone?

Thanks,

Tnt

[JoeLyons]

Hi,

Cold clone requires the Cold clone CD, depending on your licience you should be able to download the ISO.

You can then boot of that CD and it will let you do a p2v while your system is powered off so no problems with file locks, agents etc.

Joe

Remember to back EVERYTHING up before you change ANYTHING

[tractng]

Hello,

I am using the free version of ESXi, and pretty much free everything. Do I qualify for this feature?

Do you recommend using the cold clone as an alternative if other attempts failed?

Thanks,

tnt

[JoeLyons]

I'm almost 100% thats its not available for free, maybe someone can jump in with an alternative.

But yes its always worked for me on tricky boxes.

Joe

Remember to back EVERYTHING up before you change ANYTHING

[tractng]

Can somebody confirm that during the capturing of the image, the (any) services, sql, etc on the OS will continue to run?.

I did run a test and don't see any problems but just want to make sure.

I have captured many images of a windows 2003 server while windows services, sql, etc run fine during the process.

TIA,

tnt

[asatoran · Accepted solution]

Can somebody confirm that during the capturing of the image, the (any) services, sql, etc on the OS will continue to run?.

I did run a test and don't see any problems but just want to make sure.

I have captured many images of a windows 2003 server while windows services, sql, etc run fine during the process.

Yes, the services still run. However, it is normally recommended that you turn off as many services as possible. If you have a lot of traffic to the server, the conversion could fail partway through. And obviously, any changes users make to the data may not be reflected in the image/converted data. If the conversion is for dev/testing, then this may be acceptable.

When I have done my hot clones, it's usually been after hours so that I can turn off the SQL and other services. I have done some hot clones with the services running, but there were no users logged on, so very little traffic to the machine under conversion.

[tractng]

Thanks. It will be after hours but with little traffic.

tnt