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tony roth
Asked: 2010-03-26 07:12:03 +0800 CST

P2v options within a hyper-v environment

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I have a server that san boots that I want to p2v. I have many options disk2vhd, scvmm etc but I was thinking about cloning the lun (flexclone, netapp) presenting it to my hyper-v r2 server. Within the hv manager do a create new disk then have it copy the cloned lun to a vhd file. Then do the bcdedit\bootsect stuff to it. Should work right? I'm also curious if anybodys booting vhd's that are on bootable luns? I've booted native vhd's just fine was just curious about the running them off a bootable lun. I think that this has quite a few advantages like instant p2v etc.. any thoughts on this?

hmm dang as I was typing this I realized that I should not use the hv manager new disk copy routine, I should just disk2vhd the mounted lun. This has advantages in that it should be a lot faster!!

discovered that disk2vhd may be flaky, crashed the first time I ran it! thanks

hyper-v storage-area-network lun physical-to-virtual

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I use Citrix XenConvert to P2V our Windows servers into Microsoft Hyper-V. Yes, it was designed to be used with Xen, but it offers VHD as an output file type, and it is very effective. In all instances to date, the hosts have been running Hyper-V on Server 2008 x64 Standard or Server 2008 R2 Standard, and the guests have been running Server 2003.

    I don't see any reason why this procedure wouldn't work on a server that boots from SAN:

    First, I run XenConvert on the physical server while it's running (but outside of production hours). Then, I create the new virtual server with a Legacy Network Adapter, map the drive(s) to the VHD file(s) that I've created with XenConvert, shut down the old server, and fire up the new virtual server. It is easiest to RDP into the newly virtualized server to install Integration Services, because the mouse will not work via the Hyper-V console until they are installed. It's also possible to do via the keyboard on the Hyper-V host, but only in full screen mode: otherwise key combinations like ^-Esc go to the host.

    I too have tried Disk2VHD and found it to be flaky. XenConvert works better.

    [edit] download link: http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1862307&productId=683148#top

    Cheers,

    Miles

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