P2V Windows 2008 R2

JaredBusch

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Startup Repair should be tried as it is probably the quickest thing to try and has worked for me.
or you can do
bootrec /scanos (will try and find the windows partition of unbootable windows)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd (think that is one)

I believe @dafyre mentioned this posts ago, but @Dashrender never responded to it.

momurda

@JaredBusch
Ah, lots of stuff going on must have missed that one.

Dashrender

@DustinB3403 said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender Cant you just use an external usb drive?

Well that will take forever... I'd honestly just dig up 6 old hard drives that are the same, and create a temp file server.

For something not critical use freenas.

LOL - freenas - really?

Lots of assumptions here -

I have six drives lying around
those six drives would be large enough to give me the needed space
I have a PC with 6 of the needed ports

And since I don't have 1, I can't have 2, and I don't have 3 either, so this is a giant no go.

If I was going to try this type of route, I would install install ubuntu or CentOS and just create a giant partition and share it SMB. no FreeNAS needed.

JaredBusch

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@JaredBusch
Ah, lots of stuff going on must have missed that one.

He did not post the commands though, +1 for that. @Dashrender needs all the help he can get at this point, because he is in stubborn mode.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender why didn't you use the normal Windows backup utility built into Server 2008?

I haven't used Windows Backup in over 15 years - and when I did that one time, it failed miserably.

I'm not sure Windows backup would make any difference in this case - I would fully expect the Windows backup to still have the RAID drivers in it, and that the restore would expect it to still be there.

What I think I could use now though - an appAssure recovery disk or StorageCraft's Shadow Protect recovery disk that allows for the injection of drivers into an existing backup/recovery.

JaredBusch

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender why didn't you use the normal Windows backup utility built into Server 2008?

I haven't used Windows Backup in over 15 years - and when I did that one time, it failed miserably.

I'm not sure Windows backup would make any difference in this case - I would fully expect the Windows backup to still have the RAID drivers in it, and that the restore would expect it to still be there.

What I think I could use now though - an appAssure recovery disk or StorageCraft's Shadow Protect recovery disk that allows for the injection of drivers into an existing backup/recovery.

Nope, Windows Backup had an advanced option you can select during restore to tell it that you are restoring to disparate hardware.

MattSpeller

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender why didn't you use the normal Windows backup utility built into Server 2008?

I haven't used Windows Backup in over 15 years - and when I did that one time, it failed miserably.

I'm not sure Windows backup would make any difference in this case - I would fully expect the Windows backup to still have the RAID drivers in it, and that the restore would expect it to still be there.

What I think I could use now though - an appAssure recovery disk or StorageCraft's Shadow Protect recovery disk that allows for the injection of drivers into an existing backup/recovery.

Nope, Windows Backup had an advanced option you can select during restore to tell it that you are restoring to disparate hardware.

TIL

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Startup Repair should be tried as it is probably the quickest thing to try and has worked for me.
or you can do
bootrec /scanos (will try and find the windows partition of unbootable windows)

Can't find OS
https://i.imgur.com/OVsFJ06.png

Here is the dir contents - I know this is my boot/system partition
https://i.imgur.com/h2t1NWS.png

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd (think that is one)

https://i.imgur.com/nHiXF9I.png

Still not seeing the install.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Nope, Windows Backup had an advanced option you can select during restore to tell it that you are restoring to disparate hardware.

Well, that's good to know - I might have to try that.

JaredBusch

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Nope, Windows Backup had an advanced option you can select during restore to tell it that you are restoring to disparate hardware.

Well, that's good to know - I might have to try that.

I can dig out some media if you want me to show screens.

momurda

@Dashrender
Have you checked that c:\ in recovery console is actually where Windows is? Many times it is not. You also used clonezilla, which may be a fatal mistake for anything you do from this point on until you use xenconvert or try the Windows Backup route.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@JaredBusch said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

Nope, Windows Backup had an advanced option you can select during restore to tell it that you are restoring to disparate hardware.

Well, that's good to know - I might have to try that.

I can dig out some media if you want me to show screens.

I can build my own test box - but it won't be a real test because I don't have a spare server with RAID controllers to pull an image from.

Dashrender

@momurda said in P2V Windows 2008 R2:

@Dashrender
Have you checked that c:\ in recovery console is actually where Windows is? Many times it is not. You also used clonezilla, which may be a fatal mistake for anything you do from this point on until you use xenconvert or try the Windows Backup route.

Yep as my screen shots above show - is where my windows install is.

To make things hopefully easier, I have removed the additional drives from the VM so i'm only dealing with the drive. i noticed while troubleshooting earlier, that the old had swapped placed in the diskpart list with That is now solved.

Here is my current bcdedit /enum
https://i.imgur.com/fci9GJz.png

Dashrender

Why do you think clonezilla might have any blame here? Just wondering?

stacksofplates

@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.

DustinB3403

@Dashrender Because clonezilla works at the block level. And lacks the ability to remove drivers.

Dashrender

@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.

DustinB3403

@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.

Citrix dropped the tool on purpose. It was an open source tool that worked, but had issues. Plus there is a surplus of available options that work just fine.

Why they decided to close source the tool IDK. Seems odd. But they did.

stacksofplates

@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?

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.”