How to fix slow offline P2V times in VMM b/c of duplex switches

if you are experiencing a slow offline P2V time due to a network that has 100mb full duplex enabled on the switch end, here is the process you can follow to make the data transfer a lot faster. This process will modify the WIM image used for P2V and modify the type of networking drivers being used, The entire process is reversible as long as you copy back your backup WIM image from step #4 and replace the changed one with the backed up one.

1. Enable tracing on the source computer during an offline P2V. (create a file named scvmm_enable_winpe_tracing.txt and save it to the root of the source computer's boot volume before you start the P2V). This file does not need to contain any data or information. A trace file named scvmm_winpe.etl will be created and saved on the source computer.

2. Start the P2V and the stop it after it starts to copy the hard disk.

3. Log back onto the source machine and find what Network driver WinPE loads during the P2V (There should be a text file on the system drive that WinPE has created)

4. Copy the boot.wim file from the VMMData directory on the VMM Server to a new directory (Make a copy just in case anything goes wrong!)

5. Using imagex from the Windows WAIK (Located under Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64) , mount the boot.wim file as ReadWrite(Example: imagex /mountrw d:\temp\boot.wim 1 d:\temp\Mount)

6. Open the directory where the image was mounted to and navigate to the WinPE driver repository (Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository)

7. Open the folder that contains the driver, then the inf file.

8. Search for “Duplex” > Find each section of the inf that references this key and modify the default to what you want.

9. Save the file and then commit the changes back to the Wim file (Example: imagex /unmount /commit c:\mounted_images)

10. Copy the Boot.wim file and replace the one under the VMMData directory in SCVMM.

11. Start the P2V and watch it fly J

This blog post is courtesy of Andrew Auret.