Just starting to get into virtualisation, and I can see how useful it will be A friend has lent me a server to play with (Server 2003). I would like to take an image of this server, and then run the server virtually on my laptop so that I can play around with it (read break it lots). This will leave the real server untouched and still running while I play around with new ideas in a virtual environment, that will in future be put back onto the server.... ...which leads me to the next question. I have heard that it is possible to port virtual servers while they are still running. What is the best software to use to do this? I have Virtual PC, but it cannot "run" my Acronis Images, and Virtual PC cannot make its own images. I could install Server 2003 on my laptop in Virtual PC, but then I will not have any of the configuration that is present on the server that has been lent to me. I really want to run that server's setup, data etc in a virtual environment that I can play with.
do you mean like norton ghost.... because that makes a "backup" of the whole computer try and give that a google
this is fairly easy to do so. download vmware converter, it's free, and have it create an image of the server. the only real tricky thing is if the os on the server is oem and or server 2003 or newer since it will see the change in hardware and want to reactivate. on this forum you will find how to run a modified bios in vmware, once you edit the .vmx file and point it to the modded vmware bios. i did this with three servers just this week and all were able to reactivate through MS.
That sounds like the business! Not so sure about modding my bois for activation, as that may or may not affect my Vista and Win7 activations. However, just the ability to mount the server image after I have taken it should be sufficient. I will look up vmware converter and see what thats all about. Thanks
Yes, and no. That is just step 1. Firstly I need soemthing to make the image (Acronis, Ghost, whatever). Step 2 is to find some virtualization software that can mount the image, or a converter to allow the virtualization software mount it. I was not sure what the best combination of tools would be. From the previous poster I am going to try Aconis to image the machine, VMware converter, then VMware itself to mount it. BIOS mods can be left for another time if I really must do them (this is a laptop, and I don't want it to be a brick).
I would go with Acronis with Universal Restore. This will allow you do do a multitude of things such as a bare metal image in the event that you want to put the image on hardware that is different from the original without too many issues other than driver changes and reactivation since Windows will see a change in hardware. Acronis also works closely with VMWare on most of thier products and it has the ability to make a VMWare ready image as well. And if I remember correctly, it also has the option to take an image you've previously made and convert it to the vmware format.
Thanks again. Will have to have a look into that. Laptop HDD went down y'day, so I am a little stuck till I get my replacement as this emergency drive is too small to play around with images. Having the names of the programs that will work should be enough. I'll pop back here if I get stuck