If the licensing is per processor and you have an appropriately sized box for it...
On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 9:56 PM, Joseph L. Casale <[email protected] > wrote: > > (and you take care of your licensing issues) > > How exactly does moving from an esx server (with adjustable vcpu's) to an > esx server (with adjustable vcpu's) solve anything? > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Crawford, Scott [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 4:53 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: OT - converting a VMware VM back to a physical box > > Your general plan sounds decent and, as other have mentioned, your > concerns could probably be overcome with a pre-sysprep snapshot. But, why > not go a step further and create a copy of the .vmdk file and try the > migration with that while the original sits safely turned off? > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mike Leone [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 10:37 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: OT - converting a VMware VM back to a physical box > > So I've got a request that is confusing me. > > > Environment: 6 host EX 4.1 U1 cluster. VM in question - Win2003 > Enterprise, 32 bit > > > My boss tells me that I need to convert this from a VM back onto a > physical machine - for licensing reasons, this needs to be a physical box, > apparently. > > > So here's the big rub ... this VM is one of those mission-critical VMs. > Ordinarily, what I might have done is do a sysprep of the VM, and - before > shutting it down - do a full backup using EMC Networker. Then, I would do a > BMR (Bare Metal Recovery) of Windows on the new physical hardware. (when > doing a BMR, you install Windows and your backup client on the new > hardware. Then do a full restore, using the backup client, of everything > except the backup client program files). That way, after the reboot at the > end of the BMR, sysprep would run, find the new disk controller drivers, > etc, and not blue screen with inaccessible boot device errors. > > > However, my boss has vetoed that idea, since we can't take any chances > with the VM perhaps not working after the sysprep. If that BMR doesn't > work, then I would need to turn the VM back on. and we have no guarantees > that it would continue to work the same after the sysprep, etc. > > > So my hands are tied that way. > > > Then I thought - well, we could still do a BMR, but without the sysprep > first. Just do a regular full backup, and then the BMR to the physical box. > And if it fails to boot, we would (maybe) do a Windows repair installation, > using the drivers for whatever disk controllers are in the physical box. > Doing the BMR won't overwrite any drives that would be installed for the > clean first-time Windows install, and so they'd still be there for the > repair installation to find. That way, either the physical box would work, > and I'd leave the VM powered off, or the physical box would fail, and I > would power the VM back up. > > > So: any hints on how I can take this VM, and put it on a new physical box, > make it work .. and still get the VM to boot afterwards, in case the > conversion to physical did not work? Basically, I need the reverse of the > P2V converter, where - if the virtualization fails - you can still turn the > physical box back on. I just need to do exactly that, but in the other > direction. > > > Thanks > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ < > http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
