P2V BEST PRACTICESRyan 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.

Lets not get physical.

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 ('devcon findall * ^| 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.• A correctly 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