P2V cold clone using converter boot cd for HP BL 460 g5,g6,g7 and Dl 380 G5,G6 & G7 servers

what is the issue? and which drivers are you missing?

Use the petool to add the drivers you require

To add additional drivers, run these commands using the petool:

    For a storage driver – petool.exe -i coldclone.iso -d "C:\<Location_of_SCSI>\<Folder_containing_DRIVER>"

    For a NIC driver – petool.exe -i coldclone.iso -n "C:\<Location_of_NIC>\<Folder_containing_DRIVER>"

See this VMware KB article
kb.vmware.com/kb/1012947

hanccocka:
many thanks for your quick responses in this....
i didn't try it so far, but i got one of the P2V conversion ahead on HP DL & BLg5 and g6 servers, and came to know its been failed at one of our trials by our colleague. So i just want to make sure that i got the right drivers before i start this and let you know once i start doing this.

what failed?

majority of those server use the same storage and network controllers.

Even for the normal servers also like for g3 & g4, it comes to 97% and then it fails and i posted the logs earlier in my other posts as u know. i have done couple of P2V servers and out of these 50 % of them failed and 50% finished successfully. Failed ones comes to 97% and ends up with errors. I will post the logs again here if u want to analyse them, i tried looking at the logs, but couldn't find anything specific.
When it fails at 97 % i am doing v2v such as migrate from one host to another/ reconfigure the P2V VM created which them it boots normally and them P2V conversion will be succesfull. I will post you more results when i am done with P2V for g5 & g6 servers.

that was network related if you suspect network drivers update them.

A much better tool not for free we use commercially is Novell Platespin Migrate.

the tool above is used to add new or update drivers. I believe this answers your question.

Alright, i got P2V conversions on HP ProLiant BL460c G6 Physical server and i am using the vmware converter Boot CD option for cold cloning. Normally, for all the servers i tried so far, it used to pick up NIC card and now with the same boot CD.

I am getting error as network not found which means its not picking up the network card while doing this way. I can't enter the IP address in the network configuration window so that it can connect to the Virtual network where i would to migrate.

Please let me know any ideas...

You need to add the drivers to the CDROM.

hanccocka:
It did worked with the Cold clone Boot.iso image added with drivers which we already have for DL 380 G6 servers finally. But this is HP ProLiant BL460c G6 server and i would like to create One boot.iso for this one as well. If so, all i need to download is network drivers for  HP ProLiant BL460c G6 server from HP site..right ?

add these drivers to existing cold clone boot.iso image using petool...thats it ?

yes, that's correct. Ensure you install the correct network drivers for the server.

I will try this and let you know asap...

hanccocka:
Sorry for the delay in responding as i was busy with other things..
I did tried updating the Coldclone.iso image with the Latest network drivers for Proliant G5 series server and it was failed for some reason.

I am not sure of which driver to download and update as there are loads of drivers on HP website as this might cause the problem in failing.

I am referring to this link for downloading HP drivers:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3288134&prodTypeId=5351&prodSeriesId=1121516&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005#11395

please let me know further on this as i have couple of DL 380 g5 & g6
BL 460 C g6 servers for which i need to update coldclone.iso image to do P2V conversions.

Go to the HP Drivers and Support for your servers, and download the required network drivers.

hanccocka:
that is what i did and it failed for some reason, refering to the above link, i am not sure of which network driver to download as there are more than 1 network drivers for 2003 server only.
i need 100 MBps NIC speed driver.

please provide the error message.

what server is this for?

what network interface card is this for? internal on motherboard?

separate card?

you state youve added drivers successfully for the dl360 g6!

also what MODEL of NIC is in use by the OS?

a 100 MBps NIC is not the answer.

please provide the error message - i am uploading the logs for this P2V Failure

what server is this for? application server with win2k3 sp2 installed on it - (NO database)

what network interface card is this for? internal on motherboard?
NIC1 HP NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter Port1 slot 0 Bus 3

separate card? Internal card


you state youve added drivers successfully for the dl360 g6!  -- Yes, its done by one of my colleague

But i have done adding drivers to ProLiant DL380 G5 and it doesn't seem to be working, thats the reason i posted here

does you dl360 g6 driver not work for the dl380 g5?

NO it didn't work, i tried that already couple of times, but it failed and it won't show the network card while  booting with the g6 coldclone.iso where we enter the network settings to connect to the vCenter.

So when you try to add drivers to coldclone what error do you get?

hanccocka:
i did added drivers but not sure whether i added the correct drivers or not, but it did failed in doing P2V as its not picking up the network settings after booting the updated coldclone.iso.

The reason why i am saying this is it won't show the network cards info when you click on the 2nd tab of the Coldclone configuration window where you enter IP address info.

where we get to set the network speed and for g5 & g6, i am supposed to set it to auto,but this option i couldn't with the updated drivers for g5 and hence its not working.

Okay, I'm getting a little confused:-

Please select a number from below with your issue?

1. Cannot add drivers to coldclone.iso?
2. don't know how to add drivers to coldclone.iso?
3. error when adding drivers to coldclone.iso?
4. when using updated coldclone.iso, network drivers do not appear to work?
5. do not know what network drivers to use for coldclone.iso and server?

i would say 4 & 5 options.
4.  I updated coldclone.iso with the latest network drivers from the HP website but it didnt work as i said i couldn't see the Network card while entering the IP address at the vmware converter network setup window.

5, i am not sure if i downloaded the correct driver or not to use it with the coldclone.iso for dl 380 g5 server.

This question has gone a little off topic, Okay, thanks for confirming that. I believe you question, which was how do I add drivers to the coldclone.iso cdrom has been answered. If this answer has been helpful please assign points.

Please post another related question, with regards to these drivers not working correctly, and myself or another Expert will be glad to assist you.