Create Windows hardware images on Vmware Workstation 8

[morecw]

I've been successfully using an imaging tool to make and restore Windows images to the 4 models of physical computers on our network for a while now.

Moving forward, I would like to design our image on VMware (Workstation 😎 where I could configure just a 20GB hard drive. This is important for me as my imaging tool doesn't like it when the destination drive is smaller than the source.

I'm just a little unsure how it could work out in regards to drivers etc.. Has anyone done this before? I can't find any documents online on it. Apologies if this is a little off topic but I wasn't sure where else to ask.

[AWo]

Welcome to the forums!

Which imaging tool are you using?

You also can use the free VMware Converter to create a master guest from one of you cloned hardware systems.

AWo

[morecw]

Hi AWo,

I'm using Clonezilla which is a great tool but it has the issue of not allowing images to be restored onto hard drives that are smaller than the orginal source. With VMware of course you can configure whatever hard drive size you like so it would be nice to design the source image on VMware then take an image with Clonezilla.

The question comes back to: what would Clonezilla be taking an image of? How would the required drivers of the destination system be included when on VMware everything is taken care of by vmware-tools?

Morecw

[AWo]

VMware Converter does exactly this, it adds the appropriate drivers to the HAL. You can use that tool to create the virtual master copy of your Clonezilla clones.

AFAIK Clonzilla does not play with VMware like Ghost or Acronis (and more) does. VMware Converter can take images directly from these tool to create a virtual guest. But again, Converter is needed to get the virtual image.

Check: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/faqs.html

When you are at the point where you already have a virtual machine, why do you want to use Clonezilla then? VMware Workstation offers its own cloning which takes care about the MAC address and the VMware guest ID. There is no need to take care about the drivers if you are already at this point.

AWo

[Gkeerthy]

Hi

In the case of Image/building and resotring, on the physical servers, I really recommed to use the microsoft WDS this is an excellent tool where you can create a BASE image and inject what ever drivers with the tool called WAIK.

In my experience this is the most effective way to deploy servers and cusomize the image.

If you need more details on WDS and WAIK please let me know

[morecw]

I've seen the VM converter used and to me it makes sense to convert phsical servers into vSphere but reading the FAQs I really I don't think it has any facility for converting back the other way i.e when actually what I want to do is eventually distribute the image back onto physical machines. We have a bit of a production line here and roll out a few of the same models reguarly and a single image (Win Embedded 7) for all the machines would be great but the hardware types vary around Intel and AMD and I've chosen to keep the images seperate and direct from the hardware in order to ensure stability.

As for Clonezille vs Ghost etc.. Clonezilla is free so unfortunately the pressure is to stick with it although it's actually pretty good.

[morecw]

Actually I used WAIK to build my answer file for Sysprep before taking the image with Clonezilla. Are you saying it's possible to add drivers for a few completely different hardware types (Intel, AMD etc) and maintain a single image? Any info on that would be gladly welcomed. In fact quite a while ago I used a tool called UIU4you which takes care of all that for you but it wasn't free and at the place I'm working now it needs to be that way!

FYI I'm building images for Windows Embedded 7.

[AWo]

Another way to v2p is Cristie CBMR (http://www.cristie.com). We used that for p2v and v2p in the early times, when the free Converter wasn't available and you needed to attend a migration course at VMware.

AWo