Anyone here with good experience on P2V's on the

Breadfan

Enterprise level? I (along with a group) have been tasked with P2V'ing many servers by 10-13-08. I have worked with VMWare for a long time but never P2V'd a server (especially at the enterprise level) or used ESX server.

My question to you guys (and gals) is about how long do these typically take? From what I can tell given the rough specs, they are old W2K3 servers with around 30 GB locally with no SAN attached until after the migration. some have SQL server on it, some dont. Not sure if that makes a difference. They have put us on a tight schedule of doing 8 per week and 6 per weekend and only after hours.

I am not sure if we are using Converter or P2V assistant b/c the project head hasnt gotten back with me yet.

Anyways, any knowledge or tips you all can share would be most appreciated. I know things will more than likely NOT go smooth as I have yet to hear or be involved with any IT migration or transition which went smooth like they said it would

Thanks

BreadFAN

astorrs

How many servers total? Have you done any analysis to make sure all the workloads are appropriate for virtualization? Depending on the number of servers you may be able to use PlateSpin PowerRecon Inventory Edition for free to do some initial analysis. Are you able to shut down the systems for the day to migrate them? If so and if you have VI3 you could use VMware Converter Enterprise as the license is included with it. Otherwise PlateSpin PowerConvert (~ $200/migration) is another option (and a great product).

HeroPsycho

I'd hope you'd use Converter over P2V Assistant since P2V Assistant is obsolete.

You might also consider using Platespin or Backup Exec System Recovery.

It's hard to say how long it will take. Too many variables (network bandwidth, health of physical servers, potential problems you might run into that need to be resolved) for me to venture a guess that would mean anything.

Breadfan

That's kinda what I figured on. I would hope that we would be using Converter, since yes Assistant is obsolete. But in the corporate world, you never know.

I figured there were too many variables. These are development servers with anywhere from 2GB to 512MB of RAM and 30 GB to 200 GB of HD space which most look to be maxed out on

I was kinda looking for an "average" time if things for well timespan for these migrations. no big deal. I just wanted to hear your experiences and time spent, etc.

I am excited about the project itself and the knowledge gained. I know there will be "bumps" but if there wernt any, I wouldnt learn any

TechJunky

I have a done a few here at my work and it has taken around 2hours or so. I would highly suggest if you are doing SQL servers, after you turn up the new virtual server and turn down the hardware box to copy the database from the old server to the new server with the log files. I was impressed that it actually converted the box considering SQL was highly in use.

HeroPsycho

If you can stand the downtime, I'd actually recommend dismounting the DB before you convert.

Breadfan

thanks for the tips guys. As I understand the clients procedure (they havent given us the SOP on it yet), we will have to do these after hours because they are "development" servers and cannot afford any downtime.

As such, I am assuming these will be cold migrations and not "hot" ones. Is there any major reasons why you would do this as a cold clone not a hot one, other than the fact its got dynamic data versus static?

I am reading up on these topics using Mastering VMWare Infrastructure 3 by Sybex. it seems to be really great coupled with VMWare's own docs.

Docs are all well and good, I just wanted to hear the "war stories" from those that have been through it.

Again, many many thanks for the tips and suggestions

astorrs

If you're looking for another great book, you want to pickup "the ESX bible" as I think I'll start refering to it as - Ron and Mike's book that came out a few weeks ago: http://www.amazon.com/VMware-Infrastructure-Advanced-Technical-Operations/dp/0971151083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219084677&sr=1-1

It's a follow up to their previous effort for ESX 2.x and it's brilliant (like its authors).

HeroPsycho

Your major issues will likely revolve around ACID databases being dynamic. I've found that dismounting such databases prevents db issues during conversions, and it's best to do that if you can take the downtime.

The rest is basic follow through of best practices. Remove physical server specific software and drivers (Dell/HP utilities, specialized network drivers), choose appropriate hardware options for conversion (least amount of vCPU's as needed, appropriate choices for size and placement of VMDK's), etc. Use the latest version of the conversion product you've chosen for the job.

blargoe

I've never used the utility that comes with VI Enterprise, but I have used BE System Recovery for p2v a couple of times and it has worked great.