Hi, 

First time I am using ShadowProtect SB Edition to go from a healthy running physical SBS box to a virtual machine hosted on new hardware. 

1. Any documentation and/or best practices in doing this before I waste anybody's time?  I read through the user manual and there are like 3 references to virtual machines.  Couldn't find much out of the forums and the KB neither.

2. I have successfully created a live image of the physical server and it's stored on a network share.  However how do I restore this image to the virtual machine.  I boot into  the Shadow Recovery environment, and run the networking module, but I can't see anything on the network.  I can't find any options to browse network locations, even though the virtual machine has a network card running and has been assigned an IP address.

Any help would be appreciated as I hope to finish this migration over the weekend.

Thanks.

 

1. A virtual machine is like normal hardware. It has CPU, RAM, PCI, just that the maker is "VMware" (I assume you are talking about VMware). Use it like you would use normal hardware. Of course the major advantage is that while there are thousands of different pieces of hardware on the market, the set of "hardware configurations" that VMware provides is only from a set of 6 (h/w rev 1-6 that is) and even then there are only 4/5/6 in use today and there you have interchangability in many cases.

2. You boot the VM with the SP CD and restore from the network. Try connecting with \\<ip of windows server>\<Share> together with correct username and password. If you can't reach beyond the VM check network settings (bridge, NAT, host-only mode), maybe boot some Knoppix for testing the network (i.e. try ping the other side).

 Hi Bsdice,

thanks for your help.  

1. I understand how virtual machines work, in fact I am running our own network entirely on a virtual platform.  I am using MS Virtual Server not VMWare.

2. I have booted the VM wit the SPCD, and started the Restore wizard, however I can't browse to any location but the HD of the virtual machine.  I can type \\server\share or \\ip\share in the file location box, but the next box is greyed out.  As I indicated the VM is correctly assigned an IP address and so on....

I have found a temporary solution to this problem.  I am copying the image to a USB drive, which I will then mount as a virtual drive.  I am hoping this will allow me to view the image in the Recovery Console and perform a restore. 

 
However I thought that there might be a more automated way of going from a physical to virtual scenario. 

 
Thanks.



 

M$ is 1.5 or 2 or even more generations behind VMware. Even VirtualBox (open source) is better IMHO... pretty funny to see M$ scramble in the VM arena. Reminds me of their attitude vs. "the internet". I disgress.

I never used MS VM tech so can't help you with networking problems there. What you are looking for is ESX Converter (pay ware for advanced functionality). Incidentally the snapshot driver they use in the hot clone agent is made by StorageCraft. That works pretty well. You point ESX Converter to a machine, it will install agent, copy off a snapshot while machine continues and then a new VM is created on VMware ESX. Pretty neat, especially if you have a boatload of machines to virtualize.


 

I am having issues restoring an SBS box to a Virtual Machine running on Virtual Server (Hyper-V). So when I attempt to recover the image to the virtual Machine, using HIR, when the machine resets, I get nothing more thasn a blinking cursor. I have tweaked some settings and have restored this particular image over 10 times now with no variance in results. Is there a migic pill I forgot to swallow this morning? Should the restore of an image to a VM be the same as a restore to physical? Any assistance would be appreciated!

 Have you tried the KnowledgeBase? Click Here and in the search field type <Blinking Cursor> - you will find an article on how to fix the MBR.