How to create a VPC from a live server?

Luc_VanDyck

Has anyone experience in creating a VPC image from a live server?

I have a customer with a Windows 2003 Server, running NAV on SQL 2005, NAS, Sharepoint. There are some NAV issues, which I need to debug. Therefore, I would like to have a VPC, which contains the customer's server setup.

Which tools are available to convert this live server to a VPC image?
What are the steps to follow?
Are there any caveats?

garak

English version:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virt ... 76674.aspx

German version:
http://www.microsoft.com/germany/virtua ... /vsmt.mspx

Also you can create a image, for example with acronis or ghost, then create a virtual machine and restore the image there.

Regards

Luc_VanDyck

garak wrote:

Also you can create a image, for example with acronis or ghost, then create a virtual machine and restore the image there.

I presume it doesn't matter which virtual machine I create? Can I create a Windows XP virtual machine, install Acronis, and restore the image from the Windows 2003 server?

garak

Create a XP vPC and restore there the WinServer image? This i doesn't understand.

Read the Whitepaper of the "Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit" before and test it before you go to the live system

Ah, my guru admin say, that his favorite tool is vmware for this.
http://www.vmware.com/files/de/pdf/conv ... eet_de.pdf

But in both cases, the driver (like graphic, sound, tapi, etc.) could be also a problem.

Luc_VanDyck

garak wrote:

Create a XP vPC and restore there the WinServer image? This i doesn't understand.

1. I create with Acronis an image of the live server (Windows 2003)
2. How to restore this image in a VPC?

garak

for acronis:

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Luc_VanDyck

I found the perfect solution using VMWare: http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/ (Free download)