Converting VM to Physical Machine and Vice Versa.

halaakajan

Hello guys. I don't have any idea about this. Please help. We will be using vSphere for this.

QHalo

I'm sure you mean Physical to Virtual. Use Converter.

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone

odysseyelite

halaakajan wrote: »

Hello guys. I don't have any idea about this. Please help. We will be using vSphere for this.

You can use vmware converter to do physical to virtual conversions. You need third party like double take or plate spin to go from virtual to physical.

ptilsen

halaakajan wrote: »

Hello guys. I don't have any idea about this. Please help. We will be using vSphere for this.

To be completely frank, if this is the approach you take to this problem then you probably should not be handling the virtualization of physical systems at all. It's not that it's extremely easy or extremely hard -- the way you're requesting for help here seems to indicate that you haven't researched the subject on your own at all. It's not an obscure or highly technical topic -- a really simply Google search would get you high-level descriptions of what to do as well as in-depth walk-throughs of the procedure in question, which is done using highly intuitive GUIs.

If you get the high-level process and have specific questions about the implementation or are curious about the gotchas, that's fine, but if your approach is basically "I'm clueless. Help", I really have to advise against even attempting this.

cyberguypr

ptilsen wrote: »

To be completely frank, if this is the approach you take to this problem then you probably should not be handling the virtualization of physical systems at all. It's not that it's extremely easy or extremely hard -- the way you're requesting for help here seems to indicate that you haven't researched the subject on your own at all. It's not an obscure or highly technical topic -- a really simply Google search would get you high-level descriptions of what to do as well as in-depth walk-throughs of the procedure in question, which is done using highly intuitive GUIs.

If you get the high-level process and have specific questions about the implementation or are curious about the gotchas, that's fine, but if your approach is basically "I'm clueless. Help", I really have to advise against even attempting this.

Good point. This is why every respectable IT dept. has a lab, no matter how small. Before you try something with a critical system you play with it in the lab and avoid nightmares. If you dont have experience with it, then it's imperative you try it out. There are countless blogs, guides and youtube videos with step by step instructions on how to virtualize. Go check those out and then hit us with specific questions.

halaakajan

I am a student and will be having a project soon at school. So, I was planning to make VMs here at home and once I reach school I will just convert them. I don't have experience like you guys have that was the reason I asked the question here. I know how to use google and search for stuff that would prolly have been easier, I asked thi question here so experienced people can reply. I have been playing vSphere which includes ESX and vCenter but have not that much experience and note this is for school not in real world.

RouteThisWay

Well, to not beat a dead horse, but.. if this is for school- I imagine you will learn. The first link will help you accomplish what you want!

cknapp78

cyberguypr wrote: »

Good point. This is why every respectable IT dept. has a lab, no matter how small. Before you try something with a critical system you play with it in the lab and avoid nightmares. If you dont have experience with it, then it's imperative you try it out. There are countless blogs, guides and youtube videos with step by step instructions on how to virtualize. Go check those out and then hit us with specific questions.

Respectable....BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

halaakajan

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

jibbajabba

cyberguypr wrote: »

Good point. This is why every respectable IT dept. has a lab, no matter how small. Before you try something with a critical system you play with it in the lab and avoid nightmares. If you dont have experience with it, then it's imperative you try it out. There are countless blogs, guides and youtube videos with step by step instructions on how to virtualize. Go check those out and then hit us with specific questions.

VERY important to try these things out .. There are so many gotchas which aren't normally mentioned in the "manual" (Ghost NICs anyone) ... So really use a lab for that...

First time I tried that was in the first VCP training I attended - P2Vd my workstation there lol ...

QHalo

devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

I'll never forget that.

ChooseLife

and I will never forget
SMBIOS.reflectHost = "true"

This setting tells VMware to pass Vendor ID of the actual hardware and not abstract it with "VMware Inc" - critical if you want a hardware-tied OEM license for Windows to continue working after P2V..

Just a random flashback from P2V project days...

scott28tt

ChooseLife wrote: »

and I will never forget
SMBIOS.reflectHost = "true"

This setting tells VMware to pass Vendor ID of the actual hardware and not abstract it with "VMware Inc" - critical if you want a hardware-tied OEM license for Windows to continue working after P2V..

Just a random flashback from P2V project days...

You sure it's legal to use a Microsoft OEM license inside a VM, where the VM ends up running on a different piece of physical hardware than the original physical system?

ChooseLife

scott28tt wrote: »

You sure it's legal to use a Microsoft OEM license inside a VM, where the VM ends up running on a different piece of physical hardware than the original physical system?

As long as the VM continues running on the same hardware, it is legal - that's what I was told by Microsoft customer service when I inquired about it in 2008.

scott28tt

ChooseLife wrote: »

As long as the VM continues running on the same hardware, it is legal - that's what I was told by Microsoft customer service when I inquired about it in 2008.

It depends on the definition of the "same hardware" I guess - the actual same physical hardware, the same model of hardware, the same hardware manufacturer...

ChooseLife

scott28tt wrote: »

It depends on the definition of the "same hardware" I guess - the actual same physical hardware, the same model of hardware, the same hardware manufacturer...

Would have to be the same physical box that has the OEM license sticker attached to it. This was in 2008, things may have changed since (if anything, I'd expect the rules to loosen up to allow vMotion).

jibbajabba

ChooseLife wrote: »

and I will never forget
SMBIOS.reflectHost = "true"

This setting tells VMware to pass Vendor ID of the actual hardware and not abstract it with "VMware Inc" - critical if you want a hardware-tied OEM license for Windows to continue working after P2V..

Just a random flashback from P2V project days...

Oh VERY nice .. .didn't know about that one .. Thanks !!

QHalo

I believe that vMotion is fine as long as you hold a Datacenter licensing scheme. It then doesn't technically violate licensing.

http://communities.vmware.com/groups/licensing/blog/2012/01/06/microsoft-server-licensing-implications-with-vmotion

ChooseLife

QHalo wrote: »

VMware Communities: Licensing: Microsoft Server Licensing Implications with VMotion

That's a great document! (and it happens to support the statements I made above )

Yes, Datacenter license provides most flexibility for a virtualized environment.
In my case, it was a P2V project for a small company (~20 production servers), Datacenter edition was completely out of budget, and this little SMBIOS.reflectHost feature saved the company some ~25% of the licensing costs (at the 4 VM per host virtualization ratio).

QHalo

ChooseLife wrote: »

That's a great document! (and it happens to support the statements I made above )

Yes, Datacenter license provides most flexibility for a virtualized environment.
In my case, it was a P2V project for a small company (~20 production servers), Datacenter edition was completely out of budget, and this little SMBIOS.reflectHost feature saved the company some ~25% of the licensing costs (at the 4 VM per host virtualization ratio).

Technically you can do it, but you can't vMotion the machine to another host which wouldn't be the same OEM hardware tied to the license is how I'm reading it.

If its an OEM Windows Server license, the OS license is tied to the original ESX server hardware (regardless of whether its STD, Ent or DC license) and is never moveble to another hardware through VMotion or any other method. So No VMotioning allowed there.

I think that's a key part to the document in your case.

ChooseLife

QHalo wrote: »

Technically you can do it, but you can't vMotion the machine to another host which wouldn't be the same OEM hardware tied to the license is how I'm reading it.

Yep, that's exactly what I wrote earlier

QHalo

heh, yeah I just re-read your post.

scott28tt

So no VM migration of any sort, no HA, no DRS, no recovery of the VM off-site - using an OEM license for a VM is very limiting...