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P2v Best practices. Ryan B irk , VCI, VCP 3/4/5. Lets not get physical. . A P2V converts existing physical infrastructure to virtual. VMware provides a free tool to do this. Third party tools are available to help you as well.
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P2v Best practices Ryan Birk, VCI, VCP 3/4/5
Lets not get physical. • A P2V converts existing physical infrastructure to virtual. • VMware provides a free tool to do this. • Third party tools are available to help you as well. • We will focus on “vCenter Converter” which is the free utility provided by VMware. • VMware used to provide a converter plugin for vCenter. In vSphere 5 the vCenter client is not available. Standalone client is the only client.
What can you convert? • Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) • Symantec Backup Exec • Norton Ghost • Acronis True Image • StorageCraft • Parallels Desktop • Microsoft Virtual PC, Virtual Server and Hyper-V • Live powered on physical systems.
Pre-P2V. • Do an ipconfig /all > c:\ipconfig.txt. • After the P2V you will need to re-enter this information because even though the data inside the VM remains the same, you’ll have new hardware (NICs) presented to the VM. • Cache your credentials or have local admin credentials ready. • It’s always nice to not have to dig for this data!
P2V Process • Split the partitions into separate .vmdks. • Keeps your disk layout cleaner so that way when your users decide they don’t need that E: drive, your life is easier. • You do this under “Data to copy” section.
P2V Process: Speed them up. • By default, VMware Converter uses SSL to transmit data. If you’re P2V’ing on a local LAN, you might want to turn this off as it significantly speeds the process up. Talk to your security team before doing this. • There is an xml file located in: • C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter-client.xml • Look in the NFC section: • <nfc> <useSsl>false</useSsl> Change to false. • </nfc>
Post-P2V. - p1 • A few steps I recommend after completing the P2V: • Remove vendor software. • HP, Dell, IBM, etc all have software that no longer will apply. Remove it! • There are scripts you can use to get most of the software removed. • (See Kendrick Coleman's VM_Advanced.iso) • Includes an HP and Dell Cleanup utility. • NOTE: Although the script removes a large portion, you’ll still want to verify it as the vendors add new software and the cleanup utilities are not updated. • Remove Windows services that are no longer needed.
Post-P2V. – p2 • Remove non-present devices in Device Manager. • Start>Run and type "cmd" (without quotes). • Set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 • devmgmt.msc ..continued
Post-P2V. – p3 • So much leftover stuff, just dying for you to remove it!
Post-P2V. – p3 • I know what you’re thinking. That’s a lot of right clicking. • There are scripts for this. (See VM_Advanced.iso) and below: REM http://www.vmdude.fr/tips-tricks/suppression-des-peripheriques-caches/ REM http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272 REM Back up the list of every device in a temporary file DEVCON Find * | FIND /I /V "matching device (s)" > "%temp%\DevconFind.txt" REM Course devices and deleting those that are not in the export file FOR /F "tokens=1 delims=: " %%A IN ('devconfindall * ^| FIND /I /V "matching device (s)"') DO ( TYPE "%Temp%\DevconFind.txt" | FIND "%%~A" > NUL IF ERRORLEVEL 1 %Debug% DEVCON Remove "@%%~A" ) REM Remove temporary file DEL "%Temp%\DevconFind.txt"
Post-P2V. – p4 • Cleanup “Local Area Connections” • Often, because there are old hidden devices, Windows says your new devices are “Local Area Connection 3, 4, etc. Be sure to clean them up. • There is an automated tool for this on VM_Advanced.iso • Be sure that your HALs are updated. • If you went from a multi-processor environment to a single core, downgrade it. • If you went from a single core to a multi processor VM, upgrade the HAL.
Post-P2V. – p5 • Be sure that your disks are aligned. • See the Uberalign tool on VM_Advanced.iso. • Acorrectly aligned disk can yield a large increase in performance over a non-aligned disk.
Questions? • Links • VMware Converter • http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ • Kendrick Coleman's VM_Advanced.iso • http://kendrickcoleman.com/images/documents/VM_Advanced.iso