P2V – Hyper-V

PiotrIr

Hi,

I just wonder if somebody could help me. I’m looking for free tool (or very cheap) which will move my Windows Server 2003 with 400GB HDD (almost full) to .vhd (or .vhdx as I’m going to use Windows server 2012 as a host).

I wanted to use Disk2vhd but unfortunately I have to increase size of the HDD to 500GB and it has to be fixed. I also prefer to do this as quickly as possible as basically, as file is quite big, create it directly instead of using imaging tools and restore it on Virtual Machine.

Could you advise please?
Thank you.

jmritenour

Why can't you copy it with Disk2VHD then edit and expand the disk with Hyper-V afterwards?

I suppose you could theoretically boot off a large USB drive with WinPE on it, then use imagex to capture the 2003 install to a WIM, and apply that to a new VHD also using imagex. But since the 400GB drive is nearly full, the wim would be huge and it would take forever to capture, then apply.

al3kt.R***

Hello m8.
Just to make sure, no System Center VMM at your disposal or not willing to use one?
If it's the first case, perhaps you could download the (registration required) 180-day trial of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1 or the trial of 2012 System Center VMM from MS-TechNet and use the inherent online/offline P2V agent-based functions to see if it suits your needs???
I've been using the fully licensed version of VMM for all our P2V/V2V needs regarding Hyper-V trouble-free, so I am not able to tell you if any functionality is stripped off from the trial versions.
Anyway, it could take quite long for the size you are dealing with, but it has never failed on us up to this point.
Hope this helps you out .

Online Reference: P2V: Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM
You may need this one too: Download: System Center 2012 CTP2 for Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate support - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details
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PiotrIr

Jmritenour thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately main thing is Disk2VHD creates dynamic disk with all consequences. Obviously it can be converted but with this size as far as I remember it will take very long time. Apart of this, resizing in Windows 2003 case is not very easy.

al3kt.R***

You could also try using Citrix XenConvert for creating OVF file from the physical server and then import the file to MS-VMM. This could speed up things a little bit.
^{"Tigranes: Good heavens! Mardonius, what kind of men have brought us to fight against? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour."--- Herodotus, The Histories
"Nipson anomemata me monan opsin"--- Gregory of Nazianzus
"Bruce Schneier's secure handshake is so strong, you won't be able to exchange keys with anyone else for days."--- Bruce Schneier Facts}

pumbaa_g

Offline p2v is the only thing that comes to mind, will try to check and get back to you

sratakhin

If you can resize the virtual disk using HyperV and want Server 2003 see the extra space, boot your system with something like Hiren's Boot CD and resize the partition manually.

jmritenour

Given that you're working with a nearly full 400GB file system, pretty much any approach is going to take a very long time.

it_consultant

Set up a temporary instance of SCVMM 2012 and re-size the disk during the P 2 V process. Hopefully, it is not the C: drive.

PiotrIr

Thank you for your replies, relay appreciate your help.

pumbaa_g: First of all, to clarify – offline p2v will definitely do for me; I would even prefer it over online if it can take image to UNC path. So if you could send me something like that I would really appreciate.

It_consultatn: Unfortunately it is c: drive and I would prefer to install avoid installation of SCVMM if possible

Al3kt.R***: How does the conversion work? Does it create second file. I wander about how long it does take.

it_consultant

Then the problem you are really going to have is extending the system partition on Server 2003 which can only be done by 3rd party tools. I stand by my original recommendation of installing SCVMM and using it to do the P 2 V and expanding the drive during conversion. Then you will need a third party tool to extend drive C.

How to extend the windows 2003 C drive

SCVMM IS the preferred way to do a P 2 V.

al3kt.R***

Btw an excellent tool for fast WinServer (brick or VM) 2K3 partition resize is Dell's Extpart (highly recommended ).
It's just an .EXE run from CMD with some appropriate switches. It has worked quickly, like pure magic on every VM I 've tested it so far, ONLINE for every non-system partition and from safe-mode for system partitions. It's a personal favorite, by far the easiest Windows partition resizer I've ever used.

PiotrIr

Thank you all.