Have you thought about ghosting the system?
Jim Proctor
Virtual Team Lead
USGS/NGTOC III
Rolla, Missouri
jproctor AT usgs DOT gov
(573)308-3521
From: Michael Leone <Michael.Leone AT PHA.PHILA DOT GOV>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: 11/15/2011 09:48 AM
Subject: [Networker] OT - migrating a VM to a physical machine
Sent by: EMC NetWorker discussion <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>
I realize this is a bit (OK, maybe a bit more than a bit ..) OT. But I
will be using Networker in the process, so I thought I'd ask here.
VMware 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. And there's no budget for software designed for this purpose
(of course :-)).
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 Networker. Then, I would do a
BMR (Bare Metal Recovery) of Windows on the new physical hardware. 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. I could install the drivers for the new disk controller, etc, into
the running VM. Do a regular full backup, shutdown the VM, and then do the
BMR to the physical box. It should recognize that the hardware has
changed, see the new hardware, see it has a driver for it, reboot
accordingly. Repeat until it's happy and boots normally. If absolutely
necessary, do a Windows Repair installation.
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.
Since the domain SID never changes, all should be happy.
I think that should work. Anyone ever done anything similar? The BMR
should just be: install same version of Windows onto physical hardware (no
need for updates) with same name and IP address, not as member of domain.
Install NW client (same version as what's in the VM). Do a full restore of
everything except the NW client program files folder. Reboot when
prompted. That should work as a BMR for a 32bit Win2003 box, yes?
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