Question

P2V Conversion of Production Systems

Asked by: jfreckeltom

Hi All,

I'm planning on performing a P2V conversion of our live production servers using System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM). The end result I want to achieve is to have a virtual test replication of our environment.

I've converted a live member server as a test and everything seems to be Ok with the VM.  
I want to start moving on now to converting the GC, Exchange 2003, SQL 2005 and MOSS 2007 servers.

I'm a bit concerned about running this on the live servers. What are the risks involved with each server? Are there a number of different steps for each server that I need to follow to avoid causing problems with the physical server?

Also, I presume I need to stop the Exchange and SQL services to avoid any db nasties? Do I also need to take everything offline on the servers or perfrom the P2V as an offline conversion?

Thanks.

James    
 
             




 
   

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Asked On
2009-05-20 at 07:52:20ID24424633
Topics

SCVMM

,

Hyper-V

Participating Experts
2
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: arunrajuPosted on 2009-05-20 at 17:32:12ID: 24437374

I assume GC stands for Global Catalog Server.

IMHO, its not a good practice to P2V a Domain Controller.

A better option would be to install a new VM and promote it as a DC and then transfer all FSMO roles and then dcpromo the physical Server.

 

by: jfreckeltomPosted on 2009-06-04 at 02:47:24ID: 24545044

Ok thanks.

Yep, GC is our Global Catalog. This is purely going to be for a test environment, so I wouldn't want to seize any roles from the live server.

I just want to take an image of the server and then start it up in an isolated network. And then do the same for the other servers so I have a replication of our live environment.

Can anyone offer any ideas on the easiest way to do this not necessarily using P2V conversion?  

Thanks.



 

 

by: plimpiasPosted on 2009-07-02 at 12:58:14ID: 24767194

I disagree, you can do a P2V conversion but it is not recommended to do an online coversion of applications like Dc, exchagne, SQL. You must do a offline coversion of these servers which will take down your servers until the conversion is complete. otherwise you will run into some problems.

 

by: plimpiasPosted on 2009-07-02 at 12:59:58ID: 24767216

by the way doing a P2v conversion is what you want. After the conversion make sure your nics are not externall connected to your production environment in any way. This will basically replicate what you have int he production environment without effectign your production environment.

 

by: jfreckeltomPosted on 2009-07-20 at 02:41:59ID: 24893530

Hi plimpias,

Thanks for your suggestion. After a bit more reading I agree the offline conversion is the route to take.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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