I have a win2k3 with mssql 2000 and I want to migrate it on a virtual machine (vmware); if I use the convert tool from vmware, will the mssql run in the newly created machine (will it recognize the serial number and all other individual settings microsoft programs take from the computer they are installed on ?)
any success stories for this scenario are welcome
thanks
You will have none of the issues you are concerned with provided the SQL Server source is not part of a cluster. If it is part of a cluster my advice would be to build a new server cleanly in a VM - there are ways to do this but they are not approaches that I'd recommend unless there are absolutely no alternatives.
I've done this a few dozen times - the only problems I've ever had with P2V of SQL systems were caused by the aforementioned clustering and one situation where the the virtual platform could not deliver the level of performance needed. That was a case of a migration that should not have been allowed proceed because it was clear in advance that the server in question required more CPU power than the Virtual Host could deliver to a single VM.