P2V Windows 2008 R2

Recently I made some tests to P2V Windows 2008 R2 ...
I was amazed how easy this is - I had expected more problems.
All tests were done with the trial version so I can not say anything about Activation-issues
that may occur in different scenarios..
The source in all cases was a fresh installation of
7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_server_eval_en-us-GRMSXEVAL_EN_DVD.iso
without any special roles applied other than HyperV.

For the physical tests I used a HP Compaq nx9420 notebook. The SATA disk was used in native SATA mode.

So this tests may not apply to your scenario...

DISCLAIMER :
all procedures described here may not work in other then the described scenarios.
If you mess up your systems by following any of this tips it is your own problem.
I only describe what I would do or try first ...
Your mileage may vary ...

Please note: this site is work in progress - some of the scenarios surely need more indepth description.

Required skills ...

In this notes I assume you know how to remove unnecessary drivers or hardware monitoring tools.
I only describe how to get past the typical Bluescreen 7B problems. The rest is up to you.
I also assume you know how to edit the vmx-file.
For the Inplace Coldclone you should have some practice with MOA.
For the Coldclone via iSCSI you need practice with MOA , Starwind and Starport.
The other tools like Disk2Vhd, Starwind V2V Converter and the Win7 Rescue CD are very easy to use.

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Tools ...

MOA USB-disk with Workstation 6.5.3
Windows 64 bit Recovery CD
Disk2VHD tool by Windows Sysinternals
Starwind V2V Converter

For the Coldclone via iSCSI procedure I use MOA with Starwind and Starport.

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Scenarios ...

The next table lists the different scenarios I tried.

P2V is always a two steps process: imaging and patching.
The different procedures for the imaging task are listed below.
The patching part is always the same - if it is required at all.

Inplace Coldclone means that a physical machine is converted in place. As this would corrupt the running system
it is done not directly on the disk but inside a VMware snapshot.
This way the system is NOT changed.
This maybe useful for forensic investigations when there is no time to create a disk-image first.
You should have some basic MOA know how.

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Patching - easy variant

This procedure is used when otherwise the VM would boot into a bluescreen type 7B.
This assumes that VMware is the target and you configure the VM with VirtualHardware type 7.
It only applies if the virtual disk is configured like this
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"

On the target platform boot the newly created VM into the Windows 7 Recovery CD.
After boot is finished click on the CMD-button and run regedit.
Select HKLM and then Menu > File > Load Hive.
Browse to the Windows-directory on the virtualdisk > system32\config and select the file SYSTEM.
When asked for a name enter p2v.
Then find the key

HKLM\p2v\ControlSet001\services\LSI_SAS

and set the start type to REG_DWORD 0
Then select HKLM\p2v and click Menu > File > Unload Hive.
You can close regedit now and restart.
On next boot you can start into the 2008 R2 system. It should find drivers and probably needs a reboot when done.

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Patching - tricky variant

coming soon ... this is required when the BCDstore needs to be fixed

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Imaging

The listed procedures all create full disk-images.
Procedures to use single partitions will be explained later.

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1. in running 2008 R2 system use Disk2Vhd - select required partitions - store in convenient location
2. convert the VHD-file to appropriate vmdk-format with Starwind V2V Converter
- if necessary upload via WinSCP or FastSCP to ESX
3. on target platform create new VM and add converted vmdk - make sure to use appropriate vmx-entries like

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"

4. on first boot use the Windows 7 Rescue CD and see

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1. locate the correct vhd - if necessary remove snapshots first
2. convert the VHD-file to appropriate vmdk-format with Starwind V2V Converter
- if necessary upload via WinSCP or FastSCP to ESX
3. on target platform create new VM and add converted vmdk - make sure to use appropriate vmx-entries like

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"

4. on first boot use the Windows 7 Rescue CD and see

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1. in running 2008 R2 system use Disk2Vhd - select required partitions - store in convenient location
2. convert the VHD-file to appropriate vmdk-format with Starwind V2V Converter
- if necessary upload via WinSCP or FastSCP to ESX
3. on target platform create new VM and add converted vmdk - make sure to use appropriate vmx-entries like

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"

4. on first boot use the Windows 7 Rescue CD and see

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1. boot physical VM into MOA
2. create new VM and add physical disk with source system - do NOT start it
3. with vmware-vdiskmanager convert physical disk to vmdk of appropriate type - store in convenient location
4. on target platform create new VM and add converted vmdk - make sure to use appropriate vmx-entries like

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"

5. on first boot use the Windows 7 Rescue CD and see

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1. in running 2008 R2 system use Disk2Vhd - select required partitions - store in convenient location
2. on target platform create new VM and add vhd as IDE-disk

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coming soon

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1. boot physical VM into MOA
2. create new VM and add physical disk with source system - do NOT start it
3. in the vmx remove the line
scsi0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
and make sure you have this entries
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.fileName = "imported.vmdk"
4. create snapshot of the VM with Snapshotmanager

5. on first boot use the Windows 7 Rescue CD and see

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read more

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