Clone or VM Converter process for Physical Virtual Center Server

[thaduke]

I have a physical Virtual Center 2.0.1 box that I would like to make into a VM. I tried running Converter against the box one time, but when launched it, it showed all hosts as disconnected.

I'm trying it again, going into customization, giving it the same name as the physical server, configuring the nic ahead of time, etc. I also shut down the VCenter and SQL services on the physical before running Converter against it.

Has anyone done this before? Any tips to make this successful would be appreciated.

Duke

[esiebert7625]

Should be fairly straightforward.

1) Shutdown VC service and the SQL server

2) Install Converter on the physical system

3) Run Converter, select Import, select physical system as the source and then this physical system

4) The destination should be ESX (not VC), choose an ESX server and datastore to put it on

5) Once completed shutdown the physical server, bring up the VM, configure the NIC IP address for teh same as teh physical server and then start the VC service.

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[thaduke]

This is interesting. I ran Converter from a third, Windows XP machine. Is it vital that it be run from the source physical machine?

Duke

[esiebert7625 · Accepted solution]

No, not vital, I prefer doing it that way, one less thing to complicate the conversion.

[jprior]

I used Convertor on my physical VC server and it worked excellently. Stopped the VC and SQL services first, and then ran the tool on the local machine. Powered on the VM after powering off the physical box, everything was seen perfectly. I converted to a Virtual Server type VM, target was a network share on the box to host the VM. However, it took longer to convert the box than it does to create a VM (especially from template) and install VC on it. YMMV. My VC config is pretty simple, two datacenters, 3 hosts in each datacenter in a cluster. Doesn't take long to recreate from scratch!

Message was edited by:

jprior

[thaduke]

Okay...I ran Converter on the VC box. Got the image over to a virtual. Did a little more hands on reconfiguration than I expect with such a product (still had to ensure that the host name was correct, and had to hand-reenter the IP address, and go into the VIC on the server and reconnect the hosts).

But hey, we're up and operational...this is a good thing

Duke

[esiebert7625]

Cool!