[CentOS] virtualizing Windows in Cetnos

Wed Feb 28 16:56:30 UTC 2007
Adam Thompson <athompson at sjsd.net>

CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> writes:
>William Warren wrote:
>> Server 2k3 isn't a problem in that regard..:)
>indeed, you said SBS 2003.
>More importantly, perhaps, moving a running windows systme into a 
>different hardware environment (from a physical system to a virtual 
>machine in this case) can be challenging.
>I'd seriously consider clean installing on the vmware environment, 
>reinstalling any serverside applications you're using, then restoring
>a 
>backup of the system state including active directory, along with any 
>user data files (websites, exchange folders, SQL Server databases, etc
>etc).

Or, right after you download the free VMWare Server, download their
free P2V Migration tool (also at www.vmware.com) and use that to
migrate the server instance into VMWare Server.

The catch you have to deal with is, you need two physical systems not
just one.  Where do you install CentOS and VMWare, before you
virtualize the SBS server?  Not on the same disks, that's for sure...

If you have a whole weekend to do this over, use a workstation with
lots of disk space as your "swing" server - install VMWare Server (any
host OS will do) on that workstation.  
* Install the P2V tool on the workstation.  
* Use the P2V tool to migrate the SBS server into a VM on your
workstation.
* Shut down the original SBS server.  Boot the SBS VM and *MAKE SURE IT
WORKS 100%* before continuing.
* Install linux on the original SBS server, overwriting the old SBS
hard disks.
* Install VMWare Server on your new linux server.
* Shut down SBS VM on your workstation, and COPY the files over to the
linux server.
* Import the VM into VMWare Server on the linux server.
* Boot the SBS VM... make sure it works before continuing.
* Delete the VM from your workstation
* Uninstall VMWare tools from your workstation
* Done!

There are quite a few technotes in the VMWare knowledgebase about
moving VMs from one server to another.  The free "VMWare Server"
product is closest to the "GSX Server" and/or "Workstation" products,
so technical information on those two should apply (more-or-less) to
the free edition too.

-Adam Thompson
 Divisional IT Department,  St. James-Assiniboia School Division
 150 Moray St., Winnipeg, MB, R3J 3A2
 athompson at sjsd.net / tel: (204) 837-5886 x222 / fax: (204) 885-3178

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