P2V Windows 2008 R2

momurda

Ive never in my life thought of using clonezilla like you have. I suppose there is nothing wrong with what youve done, i just havent ever done it like that and it seems weird to do so. When you did the Clonezilla, you had to take these servers offline correct? With Xenconvert or even using the esxi p2v program(You dont have to do 2 conversions, just export as ova file in esxi p2v and then import the ova to xen, ova are called Open Virtualization Appliance for a reason, they work with most hypervisors, though it looks like HyperV doesnt?), the servers would be available to users during this process.
However you do need storage space for that. Easiest way is to hook up usb drive to the server you want to p2v, or send the export to shared storage but you say dont have room for that. Hundreds of GB would take a while, but if the services are available while converting it doesnt really matter. That is what i would have tried first, even on XS7. The xenconvert process basically just copies the running server's disks into vhd/ovf files, then uses the temporary transfer vm to import them into XS. They say xenconvert is unsupported, but that doesnt mean 'doesnt work anymore' usually.

File Formats for Virtual Machines
Open Virtualization Format (OVF)
The OVF Specification provides a means of describing the properties of a virtual system. It is XML based and has generous allowances for extensibility (with corresponding tradeoffs in actual portability). Most commonly, an OVF file is used to describe a single virtual machine or virtual appliance. It can contain information about the format of a virtual disk image file as well as a description of the virtual hardware that should be emulated to run the OS or application contained on such a disk image.
Open Virtual Appliance (OVA)
An OVA is an OVF file packaged together with all of its supporting files (disk images, etc.). You can read about the requirements for a valid OVA package in the OVF specification. Oftentimes people will say “an OVF” and really mean “an OVA.”

momurda

@stacksofplates
I might have old xenconvert somewhere in the darkest depths of a file server.

stacksofplates

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates
I might have old xenconvert somewhere in the darkest depths of a file server.

I meant the new one. I can't even find a reference to it on their site.

Dashrender

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

I found that Citrix did have a P2V convertor solution, but it became unsupported as of version 6.5 (last supported in 6.2).

I also found that there is apparently a new version, but it's a licensed product from Citrix.

This is a big gripe I've had with XenServer. Every other player has P2V and V2V tools.

There are tools, they just aren't free anymore.

Where is it? I can't find it anywhere?

I don't know, I don't have a paid account with Citrix, but here is the PDF on using it.
http://docs.citrix.com/content/dam/docs/en-us/xenserver/xenserver-7-0/downloads/xenserver-7-0-conversion-manager-guide.pdf

momurda

Specific troublshooting step here for OP
To change the position of the virtual disk containing the operating system

In the XenCenter Resources pane, select the powered off guest virtual machine.
Select the Storage tab.
On the Virtual Disks page, select the virtual disk containing the operating system and then click Properties.
In the <operatingsystem> Properties dialog, click on the <operatingsystem> tab to display device options
From the Device Position drop-down menu, select 0 and Click OK.

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates
I might have old xenconvert somewhere in the darkest depths of a file server.

The old version is available on the download page of XenServer.org

momurda

@stacksofplates The new one is Xenserver Conversion Manager 2.0 i think.
edit: whoops that is v2v from vmware to xen.

stacksofplates

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

I found that Citrix did have a P2V convertor solution, but it became unsupported as of version 6.5 (last supported in 6.2).

I also found that there is apparently a new version, but it's a licensed product from Citrix.

This is a big gripe I've had with XenServer. Every other player has P2V and V2V tools.

There are tools, they just aren't free anymore.

Where is it? I can't find it anywhere?

I don't know, I don't have a paid account with Citrix, but here is the PDF on using it.
http://docs.citrix.com/content/dam/docs/en-us/xenserver/xenserver-7-0/downloads/xenserver-7-0-conversion-manager-guide.pdf

That's not P2V. That's a tool to pull a VM from VMware and import it to XenServer.

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Ive never in my life thought of using clonezilla like you have. I suppose there is nothing wrong with what youve done, i just havent ever done it like that and it seems weird to do so. When you did the Clonezilla, you had to take these servers offline correct? With Xenconvert or even using the esxi p2v program(You dont have to do 2 conversions, just export as ova file in esxi p2v and then import the ova to xen, ova are called Open Virtualization Appliance for a reason, they work with most hypervisors, though it looks like HyperV doesnt?), the servers would be available to users during this process.
However you do need storage space for that. Easiest way is to hook up usb drive to the server you want to p2v, or send the export to shared storage but you say dont have room for that. Hundreds of GB would take a while, but if the services are available while converting it doesnt really matter. That is what i would have tried first, even on XS7. The xenconvert process basically just copies the running server's disks into vhd/ovf files, then uses the temporary transfer vm to import them into XS. They say xenconvert is unsupported, but that doesnt mean 'doesnt work anymore' usually.
File Formats for Virtual Machines
Open Virtualization Format (OVF)
The OVF Specification provides a means of describing the properties of a virtual system. It is XML based and has generous allowances for extensibility (with corresponding tradeoffs in actual portability). Most commonly, an OVF file is used to describe a single virtual machine or virtual appliance. It can contain information about the format of a virtual disk image file as well as a description of the virtual hardware that should be emulated to run the OS or application contained on such a disk image.
Open Virtual Appliance (OVA)
An OVA is an OVF file packaged together with all of its supporting files (disk images, etc.). You can read about the requirements for a valid OVA package in the OVF specification. Oftentimes people will say “an OVF” and really mean “an OVA.”

There was a thread yesterday where someone did exactly what you are saying - they saved to OVA, then it imported to the XS server, and it in fact made two copies of their data - one as an OVA and one as the virtual disk that was then copied to the XS server - so that process took 2x the storage space, but did work for the person in question.

As for your mentioning of leaving the systems live - I don't need them live, so that's not an issue for me.

Dashrender

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@stacksofplates said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

I found that Citrix did have a P2V convertor solution, but it became unsupported as of version 6.5 (last supported in 6.2).

I also found that there is apparently a new version, but it's a licensed product from Citrix.

This is a big gripe I've had with XenServer. Every other player has P2V and V2V tools.

There are tools, they just aren't free anymore.

Where is it? I can't find it anywhere?

I don't know, I don't have a paid account with Citrix, but here is the PDF on using it.
http://docs.citrix.com/content/dam/docs/en-us/xenserver/xenserver-7-0/downloads/xenserver-7-0-conversion-manager-guide.pdf

That's not P2V. That's a tool to pull a VM from VMware and import it to XenServer.

So it is.. I was pretty tired when I found the site - clearly I wasn't seeing straight anymore.

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Specific troublshooting step here for OP
To change the position of the virtual disk containing the operating system

In the XenCenter Resources pane, select the powered off guest virtual machine.

Select the Storage tab.

On the Virtual Disks page, select the virtual disk containing the operating system and then click Properties.

In the <operatingsystem> Properties dialog, click on the <operatingsystem> tab to display device options

From the Device Position drop-down menu, select 0 and Click OK.

I have already solved this problem. Thanks though.

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Ive never in my life thought of using clonezilla like you have. I suppose there is nothing wrong with what youve done, i just havent ever done it like that and it seems weird to do so.

Why is this weird? How is this any weirder than using Clonezilla to clone a Windows 7/10 machine and deploy it on a new PC?

The major difference here is that I can't run sysprep on the server before I take the image because I don't want to risk damaging the original install.

So with this thinking in mind I've started a new thread to look at it form that POV.
https://mangolassi.it/topic/12129/move-windows-os-from-one-platform-to-another

Dashrender

OK I think I've licked it - it was a storage related issue.

I originally found this page http://www.justandrew.net/2009/10/stop-0x0000007b-on-p2vd-windows-7.html

Which lead to this currently none working thread, but using the wayback machine I was able to see the page and the referenced post.
https://i.imgur.com/pdhnOIT.png

I booted into recovery mode, launched regedit, I loaded the hive off the drive, made the following changes

hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Intelide\Start = 0
hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\pciide\Start = 3

https://i.imgur.com/csYNpSC.png
https://i.imgur.com/8tAmiYs.png

Now in my case I had previously disabled the HP RAID services in hopes of solving this, so you might have to do that as well.

DustinB3403

@Dashrender Nice find, did the VM boot?

Dashrender

@DustinB3403 said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender Nice find, did the VM boot?

Yep

https://i.imgur.com/v32huct.png

DustinB3403

@Dashrender ewww XenCenter... Eww

Dashrender

@DustinB3403 said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender ewww XenCenter... Eww

While you can see in that picture I have an XO box, I just don't need it for this issue.

DustinB3403

@Dashrender I know I'm just messing with you.

Dashrender

OK since I had already started the restore of my system using Windows Backup to ESXi before I found the solution - I decided to let it finish then see if it would require any fixing to make it function.

@JaredBusch

Unfortunately it BSOD'ed just like XS.

So I booted to recovery mode, change the last to registry entries,

hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Intelide\Start = 0
hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\pciide\Start = 3

No go - still BSOD

Back into the recovery console and changed

hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\LSI_SAS\Start = 0
hklm\loaded hive\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\LSI_SAS2\Start = 0
(these were the first suggestions I found to try to fix this problem)

BAM! worked - booted. it's slow as molasses, but I can work on that.

I guess JB got lucky in recovery, or I was unlucky, but I'm glad I stuck it out and solved the problem.

Dashrender

Now onto virtualizing the 2003 R2 application server.