Developing a Virtual Machine Conversion Strategy

Nicola FerriniIT PRO Trainerinfo@nicolaferrini.it

What this Session is About

• Tips / Tricks / Best Practices / Lessons Learned from Virtual machine conversions

• Practical guidance for creating Dynamic Datacenter• Management of Heterogeneous virtualization

platform

What this Session is NOT About

• Intro to Hyper-V R2 or SCVMM 2008 R2• Basic installation and configuration

Challenges: • Underutilized hardware • Excessive power

consumption• Expensive space across

datacenter and branch offices

Server ConsolidationThe fastest way to reduce costs

Server Utilization

Datacenter Evolution

TraditionalDatacenter

Well-known, stable, and secureUtilization <15%

VirtualizedDatacenter

Utilization Increases to >50%Management Costs Decrease

On premisesdynamic

Datacenter - Cloud

Management Costs Decrease SignificantlyIT as a Service

Off premises dynamic

Datacenter - Cloud

Capacity on DemandGlobal Reach

Microsoft Delivers Dynamic IT Through Datacenter Systems Management

Desktop Data Center

Integration and

Centralization

AutomationKnowledgeMicrosoft Platform

Datacenter Solutions

Physical Virtual

Users Services

Decrease Cost

Improve Service Delivery

Consolidate Servers Through Simplified Virtualization And Management

9%utilization

6%utilization

50% utilization

10%utilization

Number of physical servers Power usageFloor space

11%utilization

14%utilization

Server utilization

How is your Datacenter now??

Conversion Overview• Physical to Virtual (P2V)

– Convert a physical server to a virtual machine

• Virtual to Virtual (V2V)– Convert an existing virtual machine from one technology

to another

• Virtual to Physical (V2P)– Convert a virtual machine into a physical server

• Both P2V and V2V are supported scenarios using System Center VMM 2008 R2

• 3rd parties have V2P solutions

P2V: Source Server Conversion Requirements

• Minimum of 512 MB RAM

• Must be in a workgroup environment, in the same domain as the VMM server, or a member of a domain that has a full two-way trust with the domain of the VMM server

• Should contain one of the following supported operating systems:– Windows Server 2008 R2– Windows Server 2008 (32/64-bit)– Windows Server 2003 (32/64-bit) SP2– Windows 2000 Server SP4 Rollup Update 1 (Offline P2V only)– Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4 RU1 (Offline P2V only)– Windows XP Professional (32/64-bit) SP2 or later– Windows Vista SP1 or later (32/64-bit)

P2V: Target VM Conversion Limitations

• Target virtual machine hardware cannot exceed listed items, or conversion will fail– Maximum of 64 GB RAM– Maximum of 4 processor cores– Maximum of 12 network interfaces– Maximum of 2040 GB disk if using VHD– Maximum of 256 TB per disk if using pass-through disks– Maximum total storage of 517 TB per virtual machine

using VHDs– Maximum total storage of 66560 TB per virtual machine

using pass-through disks

P2V: Conversion Methods

• Online P2V conversion - Performing a P2V conversion of a running physical server

– No downtime required– Requires source server running a Windows Operating system with Volume

Shadow Copy Services (VSS)– Windows 2000 Server does not support Online P2V– Copies the VSS snapshot over the network

• Offline P2V conversion – Performing a P2V conversion of a powered down physical server

– Downtime required– Physical server is booted into WinPE running P2V agent– Disk is copied at byte level across the network to a VHD at the target

location– VSS is not utilized

P2V: Conversion Considerations

• Server identity is maintained during conversion– Having both machines running on the same network will result in conflicts

• Online P2V conversion– VSS snapshot is a point in time

• If data is changing on the server during conversion, the VM will not have them– Physical server should go offline once the conversion is complete and you are

ready to keep the virtual machine online• Only one can be authoritative

– Physical server should be isolated or wiped to prevent collision impacts if accidentally brought back on the production network

– Some server roles should not be converted using online approach due to transactional nature

• Domain Controllers

• Offline P2V conversion– Can be used with any supported OS– Older OS might require additional software to be installed prior to conversion

• Windows Installer 3.1• Patches or drivers for the WinPE version are required

P2V: Conversion Best Practices

• Run Chkdsk and defrag the hard disks of the source server before conversion– Bad sectors won’t get transferred

• Use fast network cards to reduce the time to complete a conversion

• Perform the conversion to a staging server to reduce impact to production Hyper-V servers

• SAN attached data volumes– If the target VM can be connected to the same SAN, can use pass-through

for data disks and reattach LUNS versus converting to VHDs

• iSCSI attached data volumes– If the source server has iSCSI attached data volumes, they can migrate

with no changes

• Develop a quick rollback process for a failed P2V conversion

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

Maximize Resources

• Centralized virtual machine deployment and management for Hyper-V and VMware ESX servers

• Intelligent placement of Virtual Machines

• Fast and reliable P2V and V2V conversion

• Integrated Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) of VMs

A centralized, heterogeneous

management solution for the virtual datacenter

Increase Agility

• Rapid provisioning of new and virtual machines with templates

• Centralized library of infrastructure components

• Leverage and extend existing storage infrastructure and clusters

Leverage Skills

• Familiar interface

• Monitor physical and virtual machines from one console

• Fully scriptable using Windows PowerShell

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

SCVMM 2008 R2 Features

Hypervisor Management - Hyper-V, VMware

Cluster Integration

Host Configuration Intelligent Placement

Library Management Deployment and Storage

Virtual Machine Creation/Provisioning Monitoring and Reporting

Conversions: P2V and V2V Automation with PowerShell

Delegation and Self Service Performance and Resource Optimization

Management of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V R2

Multiple Virtual Machines Per LUN

Live Migration Cluster Shared Volumes

Storage Migration Maintenance Mode

Hot Add of Storage Rapid Provisioning

Managing P2V and V2V conversions with SCVMM

Intuitive and easy to use tools provide:• Core feature of VMM, no additional infrastructure or costs per

conversion • Wizard based experience• Reconfigure storage, memory, CPU, etc.• Efficient disk copy • Preserves network settings and MAC addresses• Automatable through PowerShell

Supported platforms:• Online - Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and

Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7• Offline - Windows 2000 Server

Performing a P2V Conversion using SCVMM

• VMM Agent is installed on source computer.

• Inventory of source computer is conducted and hardware configuration returned to VMM Server.

• VMM transfers the volume data using BITS. Offline P2V conversion reboots the source computer into Windows PE at this point.

• The VHD is “fixed up” i.e. Hyper-V components are added to the installation and configured. Other hardware specific drivers and software will need to be removed manually and the completion of the conversion process.

• Finally the VM is created and appears in the SCVMM console. The VM can optionally be running at this point and the source computer shutdown completely.

Before starting P2V Conversion…

Windows 2003 SP2 P2V Conversion• You must copy sp2.cab from the service pack media (or dllcache) on the

source server to “C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008\Patch Import” folder

• run the “Add-Patch” cmdlet to add the required files to the Virtual Machine Manager patch cache

 Windows 2000 P2V ConversionWhen performing a P2V conversion of Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server, the following components must be installed on the source computer. • Service Pack 4• Post Service Pack 4 update – KB891861-v2• Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package• .NET Framework 2.0• BITS 2.0 Update KB842773

The LAB!!

DEMO

Performing a P2V Conversion using System Center VMM

SCVMM 2008 R2 Support for VMware ESX

• Management of heterogeneous virtualization infrastructure– Single console– Standard management processes and procedures

• Version Support– VMware VirtualCenter 2.5– VMware ESX Server 3i– VMware ESX 3.0.2 and 3.5– VMware vSphere 4 (VI3 features only)

• Management of multiple VirtualCenters– Support for VMotion– Requires VirtualCenter administrator privilege at Host and

Cluster level

SCVMM 2008 R2 Support for VMware ESX

• VirtualCenter Support– Existing port groups– 1 connection per ESX host up to 35

• Intelligent Placement– Used for VMware workloads– Used for VMotion

• VMM Library– Imports VMware templates using a “move”– Stores VMware templates

• P2V and V2V Conversion– P2V to convert guest OS running in VMware VM to Hyper-V VM– V2V to convert VMware VM on ESX host to Hyper-V VM

Performing Virtual to Virtual Conversions (V2V)

The source virtual machine can be in the library, in a network share or managed by a VMware ESX Server and must have one of the following operating systems installed:

• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)• Windows 2000 Server SP4 or later• Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4 or later• Windows XP Professional (32-bit) SP2 or later• Windows XP Professional (64-bit) SP2 or later• Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (32-bit)• Windows Vista SP1 or later (64-bit)

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

DEMO

Performing a V2V Conversion using SCVMM 2008 R2

Third-Party Products

• Novell PlateSpin PowerConvert– Multi-platform support, P2V and V2V– Live test and Server Sync

• Quest Vizioncore vConverter– P2V, V2V and V2P– Cold Cloning

• DoubleTake Move– Migrate physical or virtual workloads with real-time

replication while users are online and productive– Real-Time Data Movement– Migrate any combination of Physical or Virtual Servers (X2X)

Online ResourcesMicrosoft Virtualization Home:

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization

Windows Server Virtualization Blog Site:

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/default.aspx

Virtualization Solution Accelerators

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/cc197910.aspx

Converting Physical Computers to Virtual Machines in VMM (P2V Conversions)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764232.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963740.aspx

Converting VMware Virtual Machines in VMM (V2V Conversions)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963721.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc793147.aspx

Troubleshooting Virtual Machine Conversion Issues

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb740927.aspx

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917964.aspx

Questions and

Answers

Thank You!