Grerat CoSimismgr!!!
Can you quickly list the steps for using Virtual PC to clone it's host computer's hard-drive?
Thanks a lot,
inverted
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Virtual Server 2005 - How do I make VHD of Old Servers so I can Move them To The Virtual Server?
Hey everyone,
I've got 5 desktop servers that I've got to virtualize so I can use the rack space.
How do I, if I can, create a VHD of each of the desktop servers?
I hope you're not going to state that I have to slave the HDs and mount them that way.
Thanks,
inverted
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Answers
1) Open Virtual PC 2004
2) When 'New Virtual Machine Wizard' begins, select "Use default settings to create a virtual machine" and click Next
3) Name your Virtual Machine and click Next
4) Click Finish
5) Click Virtual Disk Wizard button
6) Click Next
7) Select ' Create a new virtual disk' and click Next
8) Select 'A virtual hard disk' and click Next
9) Name your Virtual Hard Drive and click Next
10) Select 'Linked to a hard disk (Advanced)' and click Next
11) Click Finish
This will create a VHD file of the physical local hard drive
What I could get from your question is, that you already have 5 physical Servers(2000 or 2003 probably) and you want to have their identical copies under Virtual Server? So that instead of using 5 physical Servers, you can use them out of Virtual Server 2005. If I am correct please respond otherwise just ignore my comment and carry on with the steps 'CoSmismgr' provided.
Bamit99 - you are correct.
5 desktop w2k and w2k3 servers. I need the rack for our SAN's disk trays, so I have to virutalize these 5 servers and load them to a pretty beefey 2U W2k3 std R2 server with Virtual Server 2005 on the rack.
CoCmismgr is correct with the steps...
You do have to run VPC as an Administrator to Link to a hard disk.
Open Virtual PC Console
Click File / Virtual Disk Wizard / Next / Next / Name it something
'Linked to a hard disk (Advanced)
Anything anyone can add with regards to help or issues they are aware of before I being?
Thanks all,
inverted
Do you mean that I should run the wizard and create a W2k3 VM and tell it to use an existing Virtual HD...such as the ones that I create using VPC on the individual servers?
Also...VPC 2007 doesn't install in W2K servers...but I have some of them that will need to be virtualized.
Can I use an older version of VPC to create the Virtual HD images?
Virtual PC 2004 should work, though I've never used it in conjuction with newer versions.
The VHD image should contain the data as well as OS. The thing about virtual PC's is you can always test them and toy around without worrying about data loss. There are a few proggies out there that are made just for this purpose, one is called MakeVM, but only copies up to 127GB. How large are your drives?
My Desktop PC servers are 80GB drives...and at tops they are using 35GB of the disk space.
I installed VPC 2004 on the W2k server...and created a VHD that is linked to the Phyiscal Disk 0 on that box.
Now the VHD, named SVR01.vhd, is only 65KB in size...I take it it is a dynamic expanding drive.
Let me know if this is the right angle now.
I need to create a W2k VM using VPC on the server that I am trying to clone. While creating the VM...I should tell it to use SVR01.vhd as an exisiting VHD. Once it boots...it will grow to the size of the server that is hosting it.
When I am done and want to move that VHD off of the old server to a production Virtual Server...will I have to "unlink" the VHD from the Physical Disk 0 or anything like that?
This has all been a huge help...thanks,
inverted
Ok Ok Ok...I think I was going in a right direction but now I am confused again..:(...My apologies...but let me get it straight with an example... You have a 'PHYSICAL' Windows 2000 Server which is also a DC installed on a Physical Drive. Now, what you are trying to do is, have an exact replica of the DC inside a Virtual Server so that you can have multiple PCs running off VPC\Virtual Server 2005 etc i.e. if the Physical Drive of your DC is 35GB, you expect that the VHD will also be of 35GB running under a bigger Server which will also have 'other' BIG VHDs from other Servers etc. and for this, you will probably require a Server with an even BIGGER Physical Hard Drive like 500GB etc.
Is this what you are looking for? The steps already given will NOT help. Virtual Server 2005 already contains a kit to transfer the existing OS under Physical machine to Virtual Machine. The problem is, if you simply create a copy of your existing Physical System under an Virtual Server, it would NOT work as the HAL for your physical Drive and Virtual Server\VPC is different so you will end up with a blue screen. Second, If you need to create a copy of your physical Drive (Let's say Drive C) then you cannot create a VHD on the same Drive, right?!!!. It is like you cannot have a Ghost Image of a Drive saved on the same Drive. You will require two Drives for it. If you think what I just said is what you are looking for, then the steps provided will NOT do the trick. VPC 2004\VPC 2007 does not support virtualization of your physical machine. Only Virtual Server does. Their are other third party products as well.
Please refer to these articles.
http://www.microsoft.com/t
http://technet.microsoft.c
I've got my 2 host servers built and 6 physical desktop servers that will be made into VMs and loaded between the 2 host servers (3 VMs each)
Let me create one of the VMs and I'll post my result and award you guys the points...thus closing the question.
This have been very informative and I hope others will see that too.
Thanks folks,
inverted
I see the light...but now I'm going to need Systems Center VM Manager to really do it right...but for anyone else reading this...please look at the 2 artilces that Bamit99 suggested. They'll do it for you:
Please refer to these articles.
Copying a physical disk to a virtual hard disk:
http://www.microsoft.com/t
How to Convert a Physical Server to a Virtual Machine
http://technet.microsoft.c
Thank you everyone that was apart of this question. Again I hope it helps everyone like it did me...because I like my job and I want to keep it (o:
inverted
Hi!
I struggled with converting physical HD to virtual one. The actual conversion with Virtual PC 2007 succeeded but he XP Pro that was installed on that HD did not start. It handed to mup.sys. I had to do an repair installation with XP CD and then it worked. This is strange as I tried to run it on the same hardware. There should not be any HAL issues.
So my opinion is that the VPC converter does not make an exact copy of th ephysical HD. Is that right?
Go through this thread..Looks interesting!!...And No, it does not make an exact replica of the Hardware.
http://www.911cd.net/forum
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by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2007-12-17 at 14:01:31ID: 20488321
You should be able to simply install Virtual PC 2004 on each of the desktop servers for free, create the VHD files and then transfer them to your Virtual server.