Creating Fat/Thick Client Disks
Experts,
I've seen lots of documentation for converting VMs/VMDK/VHDX/whatever to physical, but I need some guidance on how to take either a VMDK or VHDX to provision physical hard drives.
Here's the catch; this needs to be burned onto DVDs because a) we can't move hard drives around, b) we can't import/export USB drives, c) these workstations will be on different networks.
My scenario: I have a Windows 10 reference image in MDT on a 2012 R2 VM in vCenter 5.1 (nested VMs, yay) that I need to be able to image workstations with because we can't be a 100% VDI environment. I have the VM running well as a VMDK in vSphere and as a VHDX in Hyper-V.
Thanks in advance!
I've seen lots of documentation for converting VMs/VMDK/VHDX/whatever to physical, but I need some guidance on how to take either a VMDK or VHDX to provision physical hard drives.
Here's the catch; this needs to be burned onto DVDs because a) we can't move hard drives around, b) we can't import/export USB drives, c) these workstations will be on different networks.
My scenario: I have a Windows 10 reference image in MDT on a 2012 R2 VM in vCenter 5.1 (nested VMs, yay) that I need to be able to image workstations with because we can't be a 100% VDI environment. I have the VM running well as a VMDK in vSphere and as a VHDX in Hyper-V.
Thanks in advance!
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Are you wanting to convert the VMDK to a Physical Workstation or Virtual Workstation ?
ASKER
Physical, sir.
So what you are attempting to do is an Offline Virtual to Physical for VMware VMs and Hyper-V VMs ?
Offline, because you are not going to have the physical hosts available on the network...
and no network access is available to complete the process, because you have the Virtual Machine on a DVD ?
and then need to get that onto a Physical machine ?
or would it be possible to use a Laptop, with VMware ESXi or Hyper-V, and a crossover cable into the back of a Physical Machine, and booting from a Client disk ?
and USB is not available either ?
and the VM you have, is based on virtual hardware, so how is it going to work on a Workstation with different hardware ?
e.g. why not start on a physical machine, and use a disk to disk copier machine to duplicate hard disks.
Offline, because you are not going to have the physical hosts available on the network...
and no network access is available to complete the process, because you have the Virtual Machine on a DVD ?
and then need to get that onto a Physical machine ?
or would it be possible to use a Laptop, with VMware ESXi or Hyper-V, and a crossover cable into the back of a Physical Machine, and booting from a Client disk ?
and USB is not available either ?
and the VM you have, is based on virtual hardware, so how is it going to work on a Workstation with different hardware ?
e.g. why not start on a physical machine, and use a disk to disk copier machine to duplicate hard disks.
ASKER
I am attempting to do a Virtual (VMDK or VHDX) to Physical for either VMware VMs or Hyper-V VMs.
I have nothing on a DVD, yet, which is what I'm trying to achieve.
I literally cannot use anything other than DVDs.
I have nothing on a DVD, yet, which is what I'm trying to achieve.
I literally cannot use anything other than DVDs.
So you need to do a bare metal restore of a virtual machine (VMware or Hyper-V) files from a DVD?
How is this going to work, as a VMware Virtual Machine or Hyper-V hardware is going to be dissimilar t your Physical Workstation e.g. storage controller, network interface, motherboard drivers, video drivers, it's likely to give you a BSOD (blue screen of death) ?
You will need to get the format of the virtual machine in the format suitable for Bare Metal Recovery software, e.g. Acronis True Echo, which can do V2P, or Storage Craft products, can do bare metal restores from VMware to Physical computers.
It's going to be painfully slow from DVD, but if that's what medium you've got to work with, that's what you will have to use.
I still think a Ghost Image, because that can be spanned over DVDs, which means, you will need a ghost image first, BUT a Ghost Image restore will fail with a BSOD, because you need something to restore the image to dissimilar hardware.
Acronis has this ability to create recovery media, for hardware to dissimilar hardware.
How is this going to work, as a VMware Virtual Machine or Hyper-V hardware is going to be dissimilar t your Physical Workstation e.g. storage controller, network interface, motherboard drivers, video drivers, it's likely to give you a BSOD (blue screen of death) ?
You will need to get the format of the virtual machine in the format suitable for Bare Metal Recovery software, e.g. Acronis True Echo, which can do V2P, or Storage Craft products, can do bare metal restores from VMware to Physical computers.
It's going to be painfully slow from DVD, but if that's what medium you've got to work with, that's what you will have to use.
I still think a Ghost Image, because that can be spanned over DVDs, which means, you will need a ghost image first, BUT a Ghost Image restore will fail with a BSOD, because you need something to restore the image to dissimilar hardware.
Acronis has this ability to create recovery media, for hardware to dissimilar hardware.
ASKER
I'm going with Ghosting C:\ then figure out a bootable disk with Windows 10 drivers. Think that'll go well?
How will Ghost handle, because your VMs will have different hardware.
e.g.
1. Motherboard drivers
2. Storage controller drivers
3. Network drivers
4. video drivers
Are you going to manually fix afterwards, if you luckily get it to BOOT with a BSOD.
e.g.
1. Motherboard drivers
2. Storage controller drivers
3. Network drivers
4. video drivers
Are you going to manually fix afterwards, if you luckily get it to BOOT with a BSOD.
ASKER
Andrew, I have no idea. This seems like making the impossible possible...
you could do it with MDT but you will have to use dual layer DVD as a single layer is simply too small. About all you can have is the OS, driverpacks and OFFICE. not much else will fit
ASKER
Is there no way to take the reference image from the MDT and burn it over a series of disks?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Best solution bar far, is Acronis Bare Metal recovery, with Universal Restore to ANY physical hardware, providing you use the drivers for the hardware.
It will create media, you can boot from, over multiple disks if no network access, and span dvds.
But format must be in Acronis.
It will create media, you can boot from, over multiple disks if no network access, and span dvds.
But format must be in Acronis.
ASKER
David - Does that work for Windows 10?
Andrew - I'll look into Acronis, but if it's not free, I don't think it's a viable solution for us.
Andrew - I'll look into Acronis, but if it's not free, I don't think it's a viable solution for us.
ASKER
Also, for Acronis Backup, which one do I want? For VMware or for PC?
Acronis is not free.
True Echo with Universal Restore.
True Echo with Universal Restore.
ASKER
What about Acronis Snap Deploy?
You need to obtain a version with supports Universal Restore.
Acronis True Image 2016
https://kb.acronis.com/ati2016/aur
Acronis True Image 2016
https://kb.acronis.com/ati2016/aur
SOLUTION
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ASKER
Well, Acronis is prohibited, apparently. I'll give the WIM a shot.