P2V information 1

[RichardMoran]

Hi,

I'm considering using VMware GSX Server for virtualising some servers, and am looking for some opinions from anyone who's used any form of P2V tool.

The driving force for the P2V tool is to be able to take an old legacy server that we have and create a virtual version of it with the applications and data intact. Additionally, it would certainly be useful in building a library of our servers for DR purposes.

I've read about VMware's own P2V tool, which sounds good, but from what I can piece together from various articles on the Net was overpriced. I have also read about Platespin's P2V tool which looks very impressive, and another by LeoStream.

PlateSpin, and LeoStream seemed reasonably priced if the information I've managed to piece together is correct. ( I've read that PlateSpin is about $3000 for a licence covering 25 conversions. )

Has anyone used any of these tools? I haven't managed to find any reviews from people who have tried the conversion process, so I'm not sure how good they are.

Any information/opinions would be appreciated, and if you can point to any sites discussing successes/failures even better!

Also, if anyone knows what the price is of the VMware P2V tool, I would be interest to know. I did see a starter kit listed on a US website at about $1800 for 25 conversions, but it listed it as a 1 year licence, which confuses me slightly. Any opinions on the various licencing schemes would also be appreciated!

Thanks

Rik

 

[onefortheroad]

I've recently attended a VMware training course which included P2V, as a product it's simple enough (I'm not a salesman so I can't comment on cost), however the guys running the course said Platespin is in some ways a better product but didn't elaborate. The VMware guys also use Ghost so that may be an option for you as it's straight forward enough.

cheers

Paul

 

[RichardMoran]

Thanks Paul,

I'm getting someone from Platespin to give me a ring to get some more info. If I go ahead and purchase it, I'll probably post a review of it to help others. Being able to create a virtual copy of a physical server by dragging and dropping seems too good to be true! I'll have to wait and see.

I did read somewhere that Platespin are developing the product further so that you can do P2V2P (Physical to Virtual to Physical). Now that would make server upgrades easy!

Rik

 

[Dameon2004]

Hi Rik,

Yes - P2V by VMWare - US $2k for 25 Licences - or 1 Year Which ever comes first.

They have unlimited for 6,000 US

We are just going through this process of over 90 Servers Identified suitable for VM on an ESX Platform.

Ghost 8.0 has Been implemented utilizing BARTPE with HBA & Updated SCSI controller drivers. So far where at 59 with 100% success rate.

Good luck

Dameon

 

[RichardMoran]

Thanks Dameon,

I've bought the Platespin product, which was the equivalent of $3000, for 25 successful conversions. It does have an expiry date, but that is in 10 years time. Hopefully I should have completed them by then!

I did my first successful conversion last night, which has been running fine this morning. I'll have to see what it's like with the more complex servers before I can safely say that it's a good product.

Rik

 

[Chacalinc]

Richard,

pls, post us your results since your experience is very interesting and important for lots of us!

Thanks in advance.

 

[RichardMoran]

Chacalinc,

Once I've successfully converted a few different servers, I'll do an update describing hardware, operating systems, types of applications, and some of the issues that I came up against.

It may take a few weeks as I have several other projects on the go at the moment.

Rik

 

[mjbrown]

Just as an addition to the Thread...

We are using Platespin P2V and are in the process of developing the procedures in our production environment to convert as many servers as possible. We have successfully converted my Citrix MF XPe FR3 servers using Platespin with NO performamce or integratrion issues. It basically went un-noticed to the the Citrix Farm or the Domain. We are also testing severa other functions of Virtual Center for rapid deployment of serevrs such as Cloning, Using Templates and the Platespin V2V function. The only process we had no issues with were the P2V conversions.



Mike Brown

 

[RichardMoran]

I've only converted a couple of servers so far, as I'm a bit tied up with writing budgets etc..., but I thought I'd let people know what my experience is so far.

I started off with a small W2K member server running Smartner Duality Enterprise Server. This system uses very little in the way of resources, but sits on it's own box (desktop PC hardware), so was ideal for virtualisation.

With Platespin you can create an image of your servers, and create the virtual machine from the image, instead of the physical machine. This is quite nice as it means you can create an image library of your servers without having to run a full conversion. You can refresh the images as often as you like without using up any conversion licences. (You can do a live conversion of the physical machine, but I preferred knowing that I was working with an image, and that the physical box was nice and safe! )

I created an image of the W2K server, and then took the physical box offline. We are currently evaluating GSX Server, and as of a couple of days ago, ESX Server. I had decided to create the virtual machine on the GSX Server for the purpose of this exercise. The process is very simple regardless of if you are using an image or not. You have a explorer type interface, which displays network servers on the left side, and Virtual Hosts/Image Server on the right.

To start the conversion you simply drag either the server, or the image, over to the Virtual Host that you want the virtual machine to be created on. This brings up a simple job configuration screen, that you can amend as required. It allows you to change things like disk space, network settings, memory, etc... Once you have made any amendments, and started the conversion process, that is pretty much it.

You can watch the job status, and see what is going on, but assuming that you have no memory/disk space issues on your Virtual Host, the conversion should complete without any problems. The conversion process can take a while, but that is more to do with the size of the volumes that are being copied to the virtual machine.

The W2K server converted fine, and was brought online as part of the conversion process. This new virtual server seemed to be working okay, and has been running fine for a couple of weeks now.

I then attempted something more complicated. We had an old legacy server running our previous business system/accounts package on Oracle for Workgroups. The server was an HP NetServer Lxr Pro, dual Pentium Pro 200, 512MB RAM, and 4 x 9GB SCSI drives in RAID 5 configuration, running NT 4 Server. This server is no longer supported by HP, which was a real problem for us as we tend to need to access our accounts history for at least 10 years. (We are a property company and some of leases can be 20 years in length). I successfully created an image of this machine, and then took the physical box offline. I ran the conversion process and the virtual machine was created ( now a single processor version ). This seemed to have run as flawlessly as the first conversion, but we did have some issues with the new virtual machine.

This particular server was a BDC on our domain, and at first glance appeared to be running fine. However, some users were having trouble connecting to one of the applications. On further inspection, it became apparent that some of the services had not started up. I discovered that when I viewed the server under Server Manager, it showed the virtual machine as a workstation, not a BDC. The solution was to remove the virtual machine from Server Manager, and add it back in as a BDC.

This sounds simple, and should have been, but it took hours for the computer accounts database to sort itself out, and sync around the network. Now this whole problem could have been simply an NT issue, but until I try it on another domain controller I can't be certain. Part of the conversion process requires the virtual machine to reboot several times, and I'm wondering if at some stage it was brought up prior to it being able to function as a domain controller.

Perhaps, someone else can shed some light on this?

The server is currently running fine, and we are planning to get rid of the physical machine in the not too distant future. So apart from a few issues, this conversion should be considered as successful.

Rik