Hello,
can someone tell me if Converter Standalone supports Windows 2008 R2 (migrating Windows which is turned on)? If it's not then when we could expect to be supported?
Thanks
Unless there is some drastic change in how Windows 2008 server works, I would hope Converter works.
You'd need to use some of the newer versions tho:
1 - standalone 4.0.0 or above
2 - plugin 4.0.3 (vCenter 2.5) or 4.1.0 (vCenter 4.0)
Regards,
EvilOne
VMware vExpert 2009
NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.
I think during converting working Windows there is issue with 100mb partition which is created during system installation and can be used for some recovery functions.
EDIT: There is one more issue. When VM is turned off and I try to move it to another ESXi server using vConverter (source: VMware Infrastructure virtual machine) I'm getting error "Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine" when I try to select it and press Next. To solve this problem I'm changing Guest operating system profile from Windows Server 2008 R2 experimental to Windows Server 2008 (both 64bit).
EDIT2: I'm using vConverter Standalone (Version 4.0.1 | 161434 - 05/21/09).
Yeah, there is something pretty specific for Windows 2008 R2 that has changed things. It's only supported on ESX 4.0 and has a pretty unique VMX file.
But if there is some unique partition that is created by Windows 2008 R2 64-bit. Can you get a screen capture of this? I don't have a virtual machine around here to play with right now, but I will try later on.
Regards,
EvilOne
VMware vExpert 2009
NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.
When you try to install Windows 2008 R2 and select empty drive installer will "tell" you that some partition must be created for some reason I don't remember what exactly but there is created 100mb partition on drive where you select to install system. I had some pretty big problems to use wbadmin to backup this partition too. This is my solution for this:
<span class="typ">Wbadmin<span class="pln"> start backup <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">backupTarget<span class="pun">:\<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun">.<span class="pln">xxx<span class="pun"><span class="typ">Backup<span class="pln"> <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">include<span class="pun">:\?<span class="typ">Volume<span class="pun">{<span class="lit">7daf776e-64b8<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">11de<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">9959<span class="pun">-<span class="lit">806e6f6e6963<span class="pun">},<span class="pln">C<span class="pun">:,<span class="pln">D<span class="pun">:<span class="pln"> <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">vssFull <span class="pun">-<span class="pln">quiet
I'm attaching screenshot from disk manager.
Hello,
anything new?
Seing the same issue on Win2k8R2.
Regards, Lars.
Simply put, Windows 2008 R2 is not supported with Converter at this time.
I wouldn't expect support for it until there is a new release or something like that.
Regards,
EvilOne
VMware vExpert 2009
NOTE: If your problem or questions has been resolved, please mark this thread as answered and award points accordingly.
When you try to install Windows 2008 R2 and select empty drive installer will "tell" you that some partition must be created for some reason I don't remember what exactly but there is created 100mb partition on drive where you select to install system.
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Not really related to the OP but that 100MB partition is created to support BitLocker should that be desired at some point down the road... BitLocker (and any full-disk encryption system) needs an unencrypted stub to kick off the boot process.
Alternately, simply assigning a drive letter to this partition should clear up any VSS related issues
If you change of OS setting in ESX to "not R2", convert it, and then change back the OS to "R2" again after conversion, it should work.
Vh, Lars.
GREAT TIP!
No luck with standalone or installed vmware converter 4.0.2. Standalone says 'unable to identify operating system'. and installed has VSS error. I seem to be doing better from vSphere server when running converter remotely and will report progress. Btw I probably have prevented myself from ever using bitlocker maybe, but I was able to trick the system into only making only one partion (but who knows, maybe why I'm having standalone converter problems). During install, after adding a partition, I delete my partition and resize the 100mb system partition to max and use that partition.
While attempting to copy a Template machine from one Standalone ESX 4.0 host to another. I got the same error, that it could not identify the hardware when it was specified as Server 2008 R2. I changed the OS type to 2008 x64 but, I found that I needed to un-install the NIC within VMware and Reinstall for the OS to identify. Also it did not carry over the HDD as a SCSI device instead installed as IDE, causing many issues with re-sizing the HDD. I am going to try and create another VM on the target machine and copy my original .VMDK files from the template using FastSCP. I will update on the results.
when using Converter against 2008 R2 VMs set the guestOS to Win 2008 64 first - then it should work
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VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook
I tried the method that you outlined but it did not create the hardware correctly. I found that if I create a new VM and then copy the .VMDK files to the directory of the new VM (using fastSCP) I could add the correct HDD. It isn't as neat as the converter but it does the trick.