couple questions on converter process

[jrobertson82]

Never used this before, couple questions I couldnt find answers for in the help sections

1. When converting from a physical box to vmware, does it matter if the hardware is different?

2. During the conversion process, will the source server still operate normally?

3. Will the destination server be off until I turn it on? Thus allowing me to shut down the source before turning the new VM server on

4. Will the new VM server have the same IP info as the source server?

5. can I assign a different hard drive size to the destination VM server in the converting process?

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

1. No, the virtual server will see the "virtual hardware" anyway (instead of the physical).

2. Yes, however it is recommended to do the conversion during off hours and shut down e.g. databases

3. You can configure this in the conversion wizard.

4. Since the virtual machine will get a new virtual NIC, you may need to reconfigure networking.

5. Yes, however I'm not 100% sure whether this option is available for all operating systems

André

[Troy_Clavell]

high level answers here

1. When converting from a physical box to vmware, does it matter if the hardware is different?

no

2. During the conversion process, will the source server still operate normally?

yes.  But, I would shutdown any services if possible, such as SQL.

3. Will the destination server be off until I turn it on? Thus allowing  me to shut down the source before turning the new VM server on

there is an option in converter to leave powered off, or choose to power on upon successful conversion.

4. Will the new VM server have the same IP info as the source server?

In theory, yes.  But that is not always how it is.  Your physical network adapter will show up as ghosted hardware, and removing that, and adding a new vNIC, may result in the loss of your network information.  It will have to me manually entered.

5. can I assign a different hard drive size to the destination VM server in the converting process?

yes.  You will have an option to resize your disks.  However at this point the conversion becomes file level, and will take longer.  No resize means block level.

For more information see

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/convsa_43_guide.pdf

See also, the M$ KB

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=269155

[pauljawood]

Hi,

1. When converting from a physical box to VMware, does it matter if the hardware is different?

* The hardware is not an issue as the server is being migrated from a physical to a virtual platform. Once the server is virtual it will use the VMware hardware. It is good practice to then remove all the old redundant hardware and devices

2. During the conversion process, will the source server still operate normally?

* This will depend on how you are migrating the server. A cold clone is when the server is powered off and the migration is done from the cold clone iso. A warm clone is when all the service's have been stopped that can be so that the server can migrate without users accessing the server. A hot clone is one that has the server being accessed and used (not recommended at all)

3. Will the destination server be off until I turn it on? Thus allowing me to shut down the source before turning the new VM server on

* This is an option you can select during the conversion process and as a general rule do not power the new vm up until you are ready

4. Will the new VM server have the same IP info as the source server?

* When the server is migrated the IP is also moved over. This is a good reason to not have the migrated machine power on before the source has been shutdown

5. can I assign a different hard drive size to the destination VM server in the converting process?

* Yes this can be done during the conversion process and is something I would expect to be done as standard to reduce wastage on the storage. A disk can be grown at a later date or additional disk added to the VM

I hope this has helped out.

[jrobertson82]

Thanks for the responses.

any opinions on roughly how long the conversion will take?

I have a physicaly server with a 33.8 gb C: drive that is currently using about 22gb of space

[a_p_]

This depends on the network speed and the disk/storage configuration of the ESX(i) host.

With proper configuration, I'd expect about 15 minutes.

André