P2V: How to Perform a Conversion

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

During a P2V conversion, images of the hard disks on the source computer are copied and formatted as virtual hard disks (.vhd files) for use in the new virtual machine.

For more information on which physical computers you can and should convert, see:

• P2V: Requirements for Physical Source Computers (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163803)

• P2V: Prioritizing physical computers for P2V conversion (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163805)

Important

Before you convert a VMware virtual machine to a Hyper-V or Virtual Server virtual machine, you must uninstall VMware Tools on the guest operating system of the virtual machine.

To create a virtual machine from a physical server

1. In the Virtual Machine Manager Administrator Console, in the Actions pane in any view, click Convert physical server to open the Convert Physical Server Wizard.

2. On the Select Source page, configure the following options:

   1. Computer name or IP address. Type the computer name or IP address of the physical server that you want to use as the source for the new virtual machine or click Browse to locate the server.

   2. User name. Type the name of a user account that has local Administrator permissions on the source machine.

   3. Password. Type the user password.

   4. Domain or computer name. If the domain name field is not already pre-populated, type the name of the domain. If the physical source computer is not a member of a domain, type the computer name or IP address in this field.

3. On the Virtual Machine Identity page, configure the following options:

   1. Virtual machine name. Accept the pre-populated virtual machine name, which is the same computer name as the name of the source physical server. Alternatively, you can type a different name.

   2. Owner. Accept the pre-populated value, DomainName\Username, to identify yourself as the owner of the new virtual machine. Alternatively, click Select to specify a different user or group as the owner. The account specified must be an Active Directory account.

   3. Description (optional). Type a description for the new virtual machine.

4. On the System Information page, click Scan System to begin a survey of the source machine that lists its hardware and software and identifies any missing components that are required for the P2V conversion. The wizard installs software on the source machine to gather the information but removes this software when the conversion is complete.

   Note

   If Windows firewall is installed on the source machine, VMM will create a firewall exception for remote administration (RemoteAdmin service). This exception is automatically removed after the conversion operation is complete.

   On the System Information tab, you can review the resulting information, such as operating system version, hard drives, and network adapters.

5. On the Volume Configuration page, review the lists of volumes and determine whether you want to make any changes:

   Select volumes to copy. Initially, all volumes appear in the results pane and are selected for duplication to the new virtual machine. The new virtual machine must contain all the system volumes and the boot volume from the source machine. For example, if the system and boot volumes are on the C: drive, the check box for the C: drive is unavailable so that you cannot clear its check box. You can remove other volumes if you do not want to duplicate them in the new virtual machine or if the host on which you deploy the new virtual machine does not have enough space to store all volumes.

   Adjust volume settings. You can use the VHD Size (MB) field to adjust the size of any volume (NTFS volumes will be automatically expanded to the size indicated), the VHD Type field to adjust the type (Dynamic or Fixed) of any volume, or the Channel field to adjust the channel (for both IDE devices and SCSI adapters) of any selected volume.

   Conversion Options. Choose between Online Conversion and Offline Conversion. Online conversions are preferable. However, if the source machine is not compatible with online conversions, then Offline Conversion will automatically be selected. For more information about conversion options, see P2V: Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM.

   To turn off the source physical computer after the P2V conversion, check the Turn off Source computer after conversion check box.

6. On the Offline Conversion Options page, select one of the following methods to provide an IP address to the boot environment on the host:

   • Obtain an IP address automatically—Use this option to obtain an IP address through DHCP.

   • Use the following IPv6 address:—Use this option to specify the IPv6 address, subnet prefix length, and default gateway of the host. Select the MAC address of the network adapter from the Bind IP to the following physical network adapter drop-down list box.

   • Use the following IPv4 address:—Use this option to specify the IPv4 address, subnet mask, and default gateway of the host. Select the MAC address of a network adapter from the Bind IP to the following physical network adapter list.

   The IP address enables the boot environment to properly load storage and network adapters when the virtual machine starts.

7. On the Virtual Machine Configuration page, select the number of processors and amount of memory for the converted virtual machine.

8. On the Select Host page, review the rating for each host to determine the most suitable host on which to deploy this virtual machine.

   Note

   If many hosts are listed, you can use the Host group, Look for, or Group by fields to display a smaller set of potential hosts.

   All hosts that are available for placement are given a rating of 0-5 stars based on their suitability to host the virtual machine. The host ratings are based on the virtual machine's hardware and resource requirements and expected resource usage. They are also based on placement settings that you can customize for VMM or for individual virtual machine deployments. The ratings are recommendations. You can select any host that has the required disk space and memory available. For more information about how VMM rates hosts, see How Virtual Machine Manager Rates Hosts.

   To see the placement settings that VMM used to rate the hosts, and optionally to change those settings, click Customize Ratings.

   To view additional information about a host rating, select the host in the list, and then use the tabs in this section to view the following information:

   • Details -- This tab displays the status of the host and lists the virtual machines that are currently deployed on it.

   • Ratings Explanation -- If a host receives a zero rating, this tab lists the conditions that caused the rating.

   • SAN Explanation -- If a SAN transfer cannot be used to move the virtual machine's files to the host, this tab lists the conditions that prevent a SAN transfer.

   Important

   In VMM 2008 R2, for hosts that are running Windows Server 2008 R2 or for ESX Server hosts, the ratings that first appear on the Select Host wizard page are based on a preliminary evaluation by VMM. To see the host rating based on a more thorough evaluation, you must select the host by clicking it.

   Note

   If a host has network optimization enabled, a green arrow appears in the Network Optimization column. VMM 2008 R2 allows you to take advantage of network optimization capabilities that are available on Hyper-V hosts that are running Windows Server 2008 R2. For information about network optimization and the hardware that supports it, see the Windows Server 2008 R2 documentation. After a virtual machine is deployed, this feature is displayed only for virtual machines that are deployed on a host that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

   After reviewing the information on this page, select the host on which you want to deploy this virtual machine, and then click Next.

   If no host in the list has sufficient disk space to host the new virtual machine, click Previous to return to the Volume Configuration page and either remove or reduce the size of one or more volumes. You can also override the default placement options that VMM uses to calculate the host ratings. Any changes that you make apply only for this virtual machine deployment. For more information about how VMM rates hosts, see How Virtual Machine Manager Rates Hosts.

9. On the Select Path page, Accept the default virtual machine path on the host to store the files associated with this virtual machine. You can also click the down arrow to select a different path, or click Browse to specify a different path on the host. You can also choose the following options:

   • If you selected a path other than an existing default path and want to store other virtual machines on that path, select the Add this path to the list of host default paths check box. For information about how to configure default virtual machine paths, see How to Set Placement Options for a Host.

   • If you chose Store the virtual machine in the library, specify the library server that will store the virtual machine, and then select a path on the available library shares to store the virtual machine's files.

10. On the Select Networks page, attach the physical network adapters to either Not Connected or to any of the virtual networks on the selected host.

11. On the Additional Properties page, accept the default settings or modify these settings as described in How to Configure Automatic Start and Stop Actions for a Virtual Machine (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=162908) .

12. On the Conversion Information page, do one of the following:

    1. Confirm that the message No issues detected appears.

    2. Review any issues reported by the wizard that must be resolved before the conversion can continue.

    Each issue in the list explains how to resolve the issue. After resolving all issues, click Check Again to check for additional issues. When no issues are detected, click Next to continue.

13. On the Summary page, do the following:

    1. Review the configuration settings. To change settings, click Previous.

    2. Optionally, click View Script to view (and copy) the Windows PowerShell script that runs this wizard and performs the conversion. All administrative tasks in VMM can be scripted or performed at the command line. For more information, see Scripting (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110911).

    3. Optionally, select the Start the virtual machine after deploying it on the host check box.

    4. Click Create to create the virtual machine.

14. In Jobs view, monitor the job progress as the new virtual machine is created and confirm that the virtual machine is created successfully. If the job fails, review the error message at the bottom of the Jobs pane for information about the cause of the failure and the recommended action to resolve the issue.