It’s been a while since I had to P2V a Windows server but recently I found myself on a project doing P2Vs of business critical servers, again.
FYI: The new version of VMware VM Converter works great for converting a physical Windows and Lunux server into a virtual server.
Once the conversion is completed, the new VM is online, VMtools are installed and video acceleration is set, here’s a couple more steps I learned about at a VMUG meeting that I recommend doing to finish the P2V job.
First – Remove Old Physical Hardware from the New Windows VM (picture shows “grayed” disk drives)
Step 1 - Log into the VM
Step 2 - Open a command prompt
- Start > Run
- CMD
- Enter
Step 3 – At the prompt type: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
- Enter
- Type: start devmgmt.msc
- Enter
Step 4 – Wait for the Device Manager to open, then click on View > Show Hidden Devices
- Expand each category and search for “grayed” hardware
- Right click and click uninstall when “grayed” hardware is located
- Don’t worry about the System Devices category
- When all the hardware devices are gone, close the Device Manager and reboot
Second – Uninstall Old Hardware Specific Software
Step 1 – Log into the VM
Step 2- Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
Step 3 – Carefully find and uninstall programs from IBM/Dell/HP/other that are used for drive arrays, networking, ILO or any other similar application that is specific to the physical hardware.
Note: These items are not required now that the server hardware has been virtualized.
Done – When all the applications have been uninstalled, close the Control Panel and reboot
Q: Why do this?
A: The reason I do these steps is because over the years I’ve had to troubleshoot VMs that I found were P2V’d by someone else and not cleaned up. This normally causes poor performance and issues with ghost hardware that conflict with the virtual hardware devices, more specific – network adapters.
There – now all you need to do is make sure all your best practices are applied to the VM and it’s ready for production.
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Originally posted 2009-09-19 07:22:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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