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John_Balsillie
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Enthusiast

"Cannot determine guest operating system" message with cold clone of W2K8

Hi All,

I am attempting to cold clone a Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition 32 bit server with the vCenter Converter 4.0 boot cd and cold cloning.

The operation fails with the message "Cannot determine guest operating system".

According to the vCenter Converter 4.0 Admin guide, W2K8 systems are supported for cold cloning.

What do I need to do to get this working?

Many thanks,

John Balsillie

John Balsillie VCI VCP5 VCAP4-DCA VCP4 VCP3 Explorer IT Services Pty Ltd
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5 Replies
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

For Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and Windows 7 you do not need the VMware Coldclone CD - there are more reliable ways to do it - see

http://sanbarrow.com/p2v2008r2.html




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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John_Balsillie
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A plug for another product was not really what I was after, but anyway, the problem is now solved, using just VMware products.

Thanks to Phil who pointed me in the right direction, the problem is now solved.

I reviewed the vCenter Converter and VM Wrkstn 7.0 vms are not supported as a target for the vCenter Converter 4.0. This is exactly what I was trying to do - cold clone a Wrkstn 7.0 W2K8 vm.

But I had a bit of a think about this because my W2K3 vm, also created with Wrkstn 7.0, cold clones perfectly. So it's obviously not just the version of Wrkstn being 7 / 6 etc but something else.

And that something else happens to be the use of the LSI logic (SAS) controller for the W2K8 vm. I created another W2K8 vm using Wrkstn 7 and this time configured the vm with the LSI logic controller (not SAS) and it cold clones just fine. The SAS controller is the default for W2K8 vms created with Wrkstn 7 as this supports the use of MS clustering in the vm. The non-SAS controller can also be used, but will prevent the use of MS clustering in the vm.

John Balsillie

John Balsillie

VCI VCP4 VCP3

Explorer IT Services Pty Ltd

John Balsillie VCI VCP5 VCAP4-DCA VCP4 VCP3 Explorer IT Services Pty Ltd
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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

This is exactly what I was trying to do - cold clone a Wrkstn 7.0 W2K8 vm.

why you think you need Converter for such a task is beyond me Smiley Wink

you already have the system inside a vmdk and so hoping that the Coldclone CD can make another copy seems a waste of time to me




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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John_Balsillie
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

For the purposes of training and demonstartion to customers of the cold clone process without requiring access to physical servers. A complete cold clone environment all on a laptop running Wrkstn. Virtual physical target, the cold clone iso and a virtual ESX host and it is all now working. Hot clones too with the addition of a vCenter / Converter vm.

John Balsillie

John Balsillie VCI VCP5 VCAP4-DCA VCP4 VCP3 Explorer IT Services Pty Ltd
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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Ok - I see.

keep in mind that a Coldclone CD test inside a VM is not real life.

In that test the Coldclone CD should have no problems detecting SCSI devices and drivers for the nics.

In real life this will be different




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
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