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Physical machine virtualization hyper v. Transferring a physical Windows system to a virtual environment using Disk2VHD. Organization of a private cloud environment for an enterprise

What to do when a program does not run on the architecture offered by your own computer? This is where virtual machines come to the rescue. This article will focus on them. What are they?

Virtual machines

Let's say Linux is installed, but Windows is required. In this case, it is not at all necessary to reinstall the system. Such issues are simply resolved with the help of virtual machines, which are able to create a software environment that emulates the behavior of the required device. Thus, the user has the opportunity to run whatever he wants. Next, it's worth considering what VMware virtualization is. What capabilities does it have and how can you customize it for your own needs?

Features of the VMware Workstation 10 virtual machine

This program is considered one of the most famous. With the help of it, it becomes possible to create not only one, but simultaneously several virtual operating systems. True, it is necessary that the iron be able to pull them. First, consider the requirements for the device. If you stick to them, you can achieve high-quality and trouble-free operation without interruption. It is possible to download the licensed version, which provides a trial period of 30 days. During this time, the user will test the version, understand what its advantages are, and may also identify disadvantages. Converting a physical machine to a virtual one does not require complex steps. Moreover, if the need arises, you can always exit the program.

System requirements

Of course, the process of converting a physical machine to a virtual one is beneficial. However, first you need to understand whether you can do this on your own device. Work with this software is available on almost every computer that was produced not earlier than the middle of the last century. As for laptops, in this case, more difficulties arise with them. However, most of them work fine with such applications.

The system requirements are as follows:

Clock frequency of 1.3 Hz;
the amount of RAM is at least 2 GB (preferably 4 GB);
Intel processors Core ™ Solo x86, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX or their equivalents.

It should be noted that the list above contains only minimum requirements... In addition, you should ensure that you have 10 GB of free hard disk space where you will install the software.

Analysis of the Workstation 10 control menu The process of virtualization of a physical machine is carried out precisely with its assistance. First of all, you need to understand the menu, which includes the following items:

1. Creation of a new virtual machine. In this case, the main thing is that in addition to the purpose, it is necessary to mention the adjustment of system parameters and various little things.
2. Opening a virtual machine. The user is offered to work with shells that were created earlier. In addition, it is possible to import and export your own developments.
3. Connection to a remote server. A virtual machine can function both on the computer on which it was created and on devices located at a great distance.
4. Virtualization of the physical machine. This item makes it possible to perform a quick transition of the computer to the environment that was created for it.

Installing the Windows operating system on Workstation 10 In this case, it will be considered how to install the operating system, taking as an example the well-known Windows. Its main advantage is that it is understandable and convenient. There are two installation modes to choose from:

Selective,
normal.

For an inexperienced user, the second option is more suitable, since in the selective mode there are many parameters that will have to be dealt with first. So, first, the key, username and password are requested to create an admin profile. Then the program will ask you to specify the location to install the virtual machine. Typically, you will need approximately 20-40 GB of aggregate space.

Editing parameters

If you need to create a technique "for yourself", do not immediately go to the "Settings" menu. First you need to adjust the default values. To do this, there is a button called "Equipment Setup". After pressing it, access to changing the RAM, the number of involved processors, the possibility of using a CD / DVD ROM opens. Optionally, you can configure the sound card, the operation of the network adapter, printer, display, and more. Then you should click on the "Finish" button. You must immediately warn that the installation of the operating system will take a certain amount of time. In this case, you should refrain from using a computer. Although, if you have enough resources, spending time on the Internet is not prohibited.

Key features

There are almost no icons on the desktop of the program. Computer settings in the OS do not differ from the usual range of work carried out in physical machines. There is an opportunity to choose the parameters for yourself, guided by personal requirements. You can experiment with software without worrying about hardware performance. If negative consequences arise, all you have to do is simply reinstall the virtual machine. Thus, the user will only lose time, nothing else.

Features of work

It is necessary to clearly understand that although there is a possibility of imitating the parameters of other architectures, the application is not always ready to work the way the user wants. In case of problems, it is recommended to change the parameters or improve the characteristics of the virtual machine. Again, you will have to spend time reinstalling, but the result is worth it.

1. Note on the article

This article describes how to convert the installed Windows system into a virtual machine image, which can later be launched in VMware products... This article will use VMware Server.

2 Installing VMware Converter

First, download VMware Converter on your Windows system (which you want to convert into a virtual machine) and start the installation.

Accept the licensing requirements and click Next:

Select a folder for installation (in the usual case, leave everything as default):

Select the Typical installation type:

Click Install to start installation:

VMware Converter will start installing:

After the installation is complete, click Finish. If you want to run VMware Converter right away, check the "Run VMware Converter now" box:

A shortcut to launch VMware Converter will appear on the desktop:

3 Convert Windows to a virtual machine

Now start VMware Converter (it might have started automatically if you set the option Run VMware Converter now at the end of the installation VMware Converter).

There is no need to add a license to VMware Converter, as Starter Mode provides everything we need and is free. So click Continue in Starter Mode:

The VMware Converter interface will open. Click Import Machine:

The VMware Converter Import Wizard starts. Click Next:

Click Next again:

Select Physical computer as the source:

We want to convert the local machine, so we select the item This local machine and click:

Select the section you want to convert. This is usually the default section:

Click Next:

In the future, I want to run a virtual machine in VMware Server, so I select the option VMware standalone virtual machine (Workstation or VMware Server):

Specify a name for the virtual machine (for example Windows XP Desktop)

and select the location on the disk where it will be created. If you select a local folder on the same drive, you will see VMware Converter swearing. Better ideas would be a network folder or other HDD.

If you specified network folder and it is password protected, enter username and password:

VMware Converter will check the settings:

After that, you can change the parameters of the future virtual machine using sysprep, but this is not necessary. Skip, click Next:

We check all the settings again, and if everything is in order, click Finish:

After that, the conversion will start. This may take a long time depending on the size of the disc.

System imported successfully:

To check the conversion, click on the Task Progress tab:

4 We start our virtual machine

Now go to the system where VMware Server is installed. Run it and import the virtual machine image.

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I'm sure you've heard about virtualization more than once. And I'm also sure that wherever you work, you would like to take advantage of the virtual environment. If you're looking for instructions on how to turn your physical server into a Hyper-V virtual machine (P2V), just read this article: I'll show you how to complete this operation in just a few minutes!

When should you not do the conversion?

I do not recommend virtualizing a physical server if it is being used as a domain controller. Instead, you need to create a new VM, designate it as a domain controller, synchronize with the primary controller, and then transfer the FSMO role to it. There are many helpful articles on this topic.

You can also perform a transaction-aware conversion - this option should be used if the machine is running SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint and similar applications. It is best to choose a time for the scheduled shutdown of the corresponding server, stop the above services before starting the conversion, and / or disable the network adapter.

There are no other restrictions for server conversion. You can start!

Guide to P2V Conversion with Disk2VHD

Of all the P2V converters for Hyper-V, Disk2VHD seems to me the most convenient for this operation. It was created by Microsoft engineers, is only 0.9 MB in size, and you can download it from the official Windows Sysinternals page. To business!

Step 1. Download the Disk2vhd program

Go to the Windows Sysinternals page and download the program.

Disk2vhd v2.01.

Step 2. Run Disk2vhd on the physical server you want to convert

Just unpack it and run it on the server. As shown in the figure, the program interface is very simple. To create a VHDX disk, select the checkbox U s e Vhdx(Use Vhdx).

NOTE. VHDX is a disk format introduced in Windows Server 2012. Compared to the traditional VHD, a number of changes were made to the VHDX: a special internal log was added to reduce the likelihood of data corruption, the capacity increased (up to 64 TB), and some other functions were added. I recommend using the VHDX format whenever possible.

Please select U se VSS(Use VSS) if you want to get a copy of the disk, not crashes. Select the location where the VHDX file will be located (if it will be located on the same disk, it can be “consumed”, so it is better to use a different hard disk to store the image). Select any disk / volume you want to virtualize. If you want to make this disk bootable, you need to include there system disk and the download area (check the box System Reserved(Reserved by the system)). Click on C reate(Create) to start converting.

Run Disk2vhd on the physical server you want to convert.

Step 3. Convert disk (s) to VHDX format and copy to Hyper-V host

During this operation, you will see the estimated time remaining until it is completed.

Upon completion, you will receive a VHDX file / disk that can be copied to the Hyper-V server and placed in the folder where the VM disks are located.

Convert disk (s) to VHDX format and copy to Hyper-V host.

Step 4. Create a new VM on the Hyper-V host

To use the created disk, you need to create a VM. Start the wizard ( New → Virtual Machine(New -> Virtual Machine)) in Hyper-V Manager and configure it according to your requirements. The configuration options are very simple, except for the choice of VM generation (appeared only in Windows Server 2012 R2).

NOTE. It is necessary to carefully approach the choice of the VM generation. Starting with Windows 2012 R2, Hyper-V has a new setting:
Generation 2 virtual machine. This is the second generation of VM firmware with an updated set of virtual hardware and new user experiences such as booting from an iSCSI-connected device. But VMs of the 2nd generation have significant limitations, for example, they support guest OS only starting from Windows 8, and the Unix family does not support it at all. Thus, in practice, this option should only be selected for Windows 8 / 8.1 or Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 and only for 64-bit versions.

Therefore, the choice of the VM generation should be considered carefully, and if you are not 100% sure that you need Generation 2, choose generation 1.

Create a new VM on the Hyper-V host.

Step 5. Connect the created disk

Reaching a step Connect Virtual Hard Disk(Virtual connection hard disk), you need to configure virtual hard disk. Find the disk you have already created and follow the remaining steps using the wizard.

Connect the virtual hard disk.

We talk about the goals, objectives and benefits of implementing virtualization based on MS Hyper-V

Hyper-V virtualization of physical servers, workstations, installation and configuration of Hyper-V for network virtualization, technical support- These are the tasks that Integrus specialists often face in their daily work.

For what purposes the Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platform is used in practice

Installing the Hyper-V hypervisor allows you to create an infrastructure for virtualizing servers, network segments, client machines, or individual applications. With Hyper-V virtualization tools, IT infrastructure becomes more efficient, increases security and resiliency, and reduces maintenance costs.

Let's take a look at a few of the benefits of Hyper-V virtualization technology.

Rational use of equipment

Hyper-V hardware virtualization support allows you to focus servers on fewer physical machines(as experience shows, without virtualization, their resources are rarely used at full capacity). An example from our practice - transferring a server to a Hyper-V virtual machine made it possible to deploy a server, terminal server and databases on a single physical server at the same time, respectively, the customer was able to save money on the purchase of "extra" equipment and its operation.

Organization of a private cloud environment for an enterprise

Hyper-V virtualization system will help create public cloud resources companies and flexibly manage their use. Shielded virtual machines are available to provide greater security and protection for Hyper-V virtual servers.

Company data security

As one of the security measures, you can consider using Hyper-V on client PCs, virtualization of the physical machine. At the employee's workplace, we transfer the physical machine to the Hyper-V virtual environment, deploy two virtual machines (VM) - a work and personal one. On the workstation, we set up all the necessary access restrictions and security policies adopted in the company, and for the personal user, he can do whatever he wants, while the company data will remain completely safe, because VMs are isolated from one another. Windows 7, 10 Pro, or Enterprise have built-in support for Hyper-V virtualization.

Virtual Desktops (VDI)

Installing and configuring Hyper-V Server 2012 and Remote Desktop Virtualization Host will provide users with personal virtual desktops - a ready-made working environment with access to it from anywhere in the world, will allow you to centralize administration and control all user data flows. And VM live migration tools will enable you to migrate Hyper-V virtual machines almost invisibly to users.

Modeling any environment for application development and testing tasks

You can use virtualization with Hyper-V to simulate physical computing environments in which the application should function. There is no need to buy and maintain all the hardware components that would be needed if the environment were to be physically recreated; it is enough to install Windows Hyper-V and simulate all the necessary components.

Business continuity

Server virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V will help reduce the impact of downtime because the virtual server is not tied to physical hardware that can fail. In the event of a failure, it can be quickly and easily launched on redundant hardware (best of all, if you have configured the Hyper-V Windows network and organized a failover server cluster).

Hyper-V hypervisor is distributed free of charge, it can be downloaded from the Microsoft website, it is installed on any windows or Linux server. It is easy to operate and simple to use.

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how much the project will cost (calculated individually)

Integrus specialists are ready to configure virtual networks Hyper-V, create or migrate a VMWare virtual machine to Hyper-V. The cost of the work depends on the size of the project.

On Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8 operating systems, there is a systeminfo.exe utility that displays basic information about the system. Utility Coreinfo from Mark Russinovich provides much more opportunities in this regard.

This utility command line can show you the bindings of logical processors to a physical processor, the NUMA node and socket in which it resides, and the cache sizes assigned to each logical processor. Coreinfo also uses the Windows function GetLogicalProcessorInformation site: msdn.microsoft.com to retrieve the information and print it to the console screen, where the logical processor binding will be shown with an asterisk ‘*’. Coreinfo is also useful for getting detailed information about the processor (for example, whether it supports Hyper-V virtualization) and about the cache topology of your system.

[How to install Coreinfo]

Installation is very easy. Download the archive with the program, unpack it to any convenient place, run it. The program will ask you a question about accepting the license terms and after that it will be ready to work. To always have the utility at hand, copy Coreinfo.exe to the% SystemRoot% \ system32 folder.

[Using Coreinfo]

Run Coreinfo from a command line running with administrator rights. For each available resource, a map of binding to processors visible to the OS will be shown, where * will show belonging to the available processors. For example, for a system with 4 cores, the cache info line will have a map of the shared cache between cores 3 and 4.

-c Displays information about kernels. -f Displays information about the capabilities of the kernels. -g Displays information about groups. -l Displays information about the cache. -n Displays information about NUMA nodes. -s Displays information about processor sockets. -m Displays the cost of accessing NUMA. -v Displays the processor and system capabilities to support virtualization (Hyper-V), including support for second-level address translation (to Intel systems requires administrator rights).

By default (if you run coreinfo.exe without options), information is displayed for all options except -v.

Note: in the output, the dash ‘-’ means that this function is disabled or not supported, and the asterisk ‘*’ means the presence of the corresponding function (options, binding).

1 ... Coreinfo site: technet.microsoft.com.

Microsoft Windows (c) Microsoft Corp. 2009. All rights reserved.
C: \ Windows \ System32> Coreinfo.exe
Coreinfo v3.31 - Dump information on system CPU and memory topology Copyright (C) 2008-2014 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
AMD FX (tm) -6300 Six-Core Processor AMD64 Family 21 Model 2 Stepping 0, AuthenticAMD HTT * Multicore HYPERVISOR - Hypervisor is present VMX - Supports Intel hardware-assisted virtualization SVM * Supports AMD hardware-assisted virtualization X64 * Supports 64-bit mode
SMX - Supports Intel trusted execution SKINIT * Supports AMD SKINIT
NX * Supports no-execute page protection SMEP - Supports Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention SMAP - Supports Supervisor Mode Access Prevention PAGE1GB * Supports 1 GB large pages PAE * Supports> 32-bit physical addresses PAT * Supports Page Attribute Table PSE * Supports 4 MB pages PSE36 * Supports> 32-bit address 4 MB pages PGE * Supports global bit in page tables SS - Supports bus snooping for cache operations VME * Supports Virtual-8086 mode RDWRFSGSBASE - Supports direct GS / FS base access
FPU * Implements i387 floating point instructions MMX * Supports MMX instruction set MMXEXT * Implements AMD MMX extensions 3DNOW - Supports 3DNow! instructions 3DNOWEXT - Supports 3DNow! extension instructions SSE * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions SSE2 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 SSE3 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 SSSE3 * Supports Supplemental SIMD Extensions 3 SSE4a * Supports Streaming SIMDR Extensions 4a SSE4.1 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 SSE4.2 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2
AES * Supports AES extensions AVX * Supports AVX intruction extensions FMA * Supports FMA extensions using YMM state MSR * Implements RDMSR / WRMSR instructions MTRR * Supports Memory Type Range Registers XSAVE * Supports XSAVE / XRSTOR instructions OSXSAVE * Supports XSETBV / XGETBV instructions RDRAND RDRAND instruction RDSEED - Supports RDSEED instruction
CMOV * Supports CMOVcc instruction CLFSH * Supports CLFLUSH instruction CX8 * Supports compare and exchange 8-byte instructions CX16 * Supports CMPXCHG16B instruction BMI1 * Supports bit manipulation extensions 1 BMI2 - Supports bit manipulation extensions 2 ADX - Supports ADCX / ADOX instructions DCA - Supports prefetch from memory-mapped device F16C * Supports half-precision instruction FXSR * Supports FXSAVE / FXSTOR instructions FFXSR * Supports optimized FXSAVE / FSRSTOR instruction MONITOR * Supports MONITOR and MWAIT instructions MOVBE - Supports MOVBE instruction ERMSB - Supports Enhanced instruction REP MOVSB / STOSB * Supports PCLMULDQ instruction POPCNT * Supports POPCNT instruction LZCNT * Supports LZCNT instruction SEP * Supports fast system call instructions LAHF-SAHF * Supports LAHF / SAHF instructions in 64-bit mode HLE - Supports Hardware Lock Elision instructions RTM - Supports Restricted Transactional Memory instructions
DE * Supports I / O breakpoints including CR4. DE DTES64 - Can write history of 64-bit branch addresses DS - Implements memory-resident debug buffer DS-CPL - Supports Debug Store feature with CPL PCID - Supports PCIDs and settable CR4.PCIDE INVPCID - Supports INVPCID instruction PDCM - Supports Performance Capabilities MSR RDTSCP * Supports RDTSCP instruction TSC * Supports RDTSC instruction TSC-DEADLINE - Local APIC supports one-shot deadline timer TSC-INVARIANT * TSC runs at constant rate xTPR - Supports disabling priority task messages
EIST - Supports Enhanced Intel Speedstep ACPI - Implements MSR for power management TM - Implements thermal monitor circuitry TM2 - Implements Thermal Monitor 2 control APIC * Implements software-accessible local APIC x2APIC - Supports x2APIC
CNXT-ID - L1 data cache mode adaptive or BIOS
MCE * Supports Machine Check, INT18 and CR4.MCE MCA * Implements Machine Check Architecture PBE - Supports use of FERR # / PBE # pin
PSN - Implements 96-bit processor serial number
PREFETCHW * Supports PREFETCHW instruction
Maximum implemented CPUID leaves: 0000000D (Basic), 8000001E (Extended).
Logical to Physical Processor Map: * —— Physical Processor 0 - * —- Physical Processor 1 - * - Physical Processor 2 - * - Physical Processor 3 —- * - Physical Processor 4 —— * Physical Processor 5
Logical Processor to Socket Map: ****** Socket 0
Logical Processor to NUMA Node Map: ****** NUMA Node 0
No NUMA nodes.
Logical Processor to Cache Map: * —— Data Cache 0, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 * —— Instruction Cache 0, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 2, LineSize 64 * —— Unified Cache 0, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 - * —- Data Cache 1, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 - * —- Instruction Cache 1, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 2, LineSize 64 - * —- Unified Cache 1, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 - * - Data Cache 2, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 - * - Instruction Cache 2, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 2 , LineSize 64 - * - Unified Cache 2, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 - * - Data Cache 3, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 - * - Instruction Cache 3, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 2, LineSize 64 - * - Unified Cache 3, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 —- * - Data Cache 4, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 —- * - Instruction Cache 4, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 2, LineSize 64 —- * - Unified Cache 4, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 —— * Data Cache 5, Level 1, 16 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64 —— * Instruction Cache 5, Level 1 , 64 KB, Assoc 2, LineSize 64 —— * Unified Cache 5, Level 2, 2 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64 ****** Unified Cache 6, Level 3, 8 MB, Assoc 1, LineSize 64
Logical Processor to Group Map: ****** Group 0

By Mark Russinovich

Published: August 18, 2014

Download Coreinfo(192 KB)

Introduction

Coreinfo is a command-line utility that shows you the mapping between logical processors and the physical processor, NUMA node, and socket on which they reside, as well as the cache’s assigned to each logical processor.

Processor requirements for enabling Hyper-V on Windows 8

It uses the Windows' GetLogicalProcessorInformation function to obtain this information and prints it to the screen, representing a mapping to a logical processor with an asterisk e.g. ‘*’. Coreinfo is useful for gaining insight into the processor and cache topology of your system.

Installation

You run Coreinfo by typing "coreinfo".

Using CoreInfo

For each resource it shows a map of the OS-visible processors that correspond to the specified resources, with "*" representing the applicable processors. For example, on a 4-core system, a line in the cache output with a map of shared by cores 3 and 4.

Usage: coreinfo [-c] [- f] [- g] [- l] [- n] [- s] [- m] [- v]

Parameter	Description
- c	Dump information on cores.
-f	Dump core feature information.
-g	Dump information on groups.
- l	Dump information on caches.
-n	Dump information on NUMA nodes.
-s	Dump information on sockets.
-m	Dump NUMA access cost.
-v	Dump only virtualization-related features including support for second level address translation.
(requires administrative rights on Intel systems).

All options except -v are selected by default.

Coreinfo Output:

Download Coreinfo(192 KB)

Easy migration of Windows Server to Hyper-V environment

Sooner or later, in almost any IT infrastructure, the question arises of replacing old equipment with newer ones. Over time, any equipment develops its resource and must be replaced (with a new one and, accordingly, faster), but an increase in computing power is not always required. This usually necessitates porting existing applications, ideally without changing the configuration.

It's no secret that many software products require specific settings of the operating system and environment, and work more stable in a separate instance of the operating system. In addition, there are a number of other reasons for isolating services on separate OS instances: application-specific maintenance and patching cycles, crash and error isolation requirements, security isolation, and so on. But it is very wasteful to allocate a separate physical server for some task that does not require large computing resources.

In the case when high performance is not required, especially the performance of the I / O subsystem, it is quite possible to use virtualization to consolidate physical systems (Physical-to-Virtual, p2v).

The first candidates for consolidation into virtual machines are:

unloaded services with low resource consumption of the I / O subsystem
services requiring specific operating system settings
services that require a separate maintenance cycle - frequent updates, OS reboots, etc.

Of course, despite the fashion and trends, you shouldn't virtualize everything. Where possible, virtualization should be avoided in the following cases:

Loaded services, especially those requiring intensive disk activity (for example, a DBMS)
Infrastructure services on which the operation of the hypervisor itself depends. For example, Active Directory Services in a virtual machine included in the same AD domain is not a good idea.
Use of specific equipment

Virtualization cannot be nested. If the source hardware has virtual machines in some form (Virtual PC, Virtual Box, VmWare, etc.), they should be transferred separately using the v2v (Virtual-to-Virtual) method.

And finally, do not forget about "all eggs in one basket." This becomes especially important in the case of many virtual machines running on one server.

Let's look at the migration process using a real example.

Initial data

Several servers, approximately the same configuration, Windows Server platform. It was necessary to free up some of the equipment, so it was decided to compact the unloaded services by consolidating in Hyper-V, thus freeing up a separate physical server.

Transfer technique

On the market there is a large number of commercial products that can be migrated to a virtual environment, most notably Microsoft System Center Operations Manager with Hyper-V Management Pack. Almost all of these tools require the purchase of a license, and should be considered in the event of massive consolidation of dozens of servers and further management.

For a one-time migration of one server, I wanted to do with simple and improvised means.

The first thing that came to mind was to use the built-in backup function for the transfer. copy windows Server Backup, which, starting with Windows Server 2008, creates a VHD image on output with backup copy systems.

After some experimenting with backup a simpler solution was found.

The Microsoft site has a set of very useful utilities from Mark Russinovich of the Sysinternals team, among which there is ulit disk2vhd... It does exactly what is required - it allows you to remove the VHD image from the disk. Moreover, unlike Windows Server Backup, which creates a separate VHD image for each volume, disk2vhd allows you to copy physical disk with all volumes (or selectively) into one virtual disk. In addition, disk2vhd works on older versions of Windows (2000 / XP / 2003) as well.

The image can be taken both offline, by connecting the disk to another server or by booting from a WinPE image, or on the go from a VSS snapshot of the file system.

The utility also works from the command line, which is very useful, for example, when migrating servers to a Core installation.

The created disk image can later be used when creating a virtual machine.

Creating a virtual machine

After taking the image from the existing system, you need to create a Hyper-V virtual machine with the necessary settings.

Specify the required amount of RAM

Select a network connection

Finally, select the existing disk image that was previously created with disk2vhd

After creation, edit the necessary settings - the number of processor cores, specific network settings

And don't forget to deliver the Hyper-V utilities to the virtual machine.

Thus, it is quite easy to migrate an operating system from a physical server to a Hyper-V virtual machine.

Potential problems

Basically, the migration process itself is fairly simple and should go smoothly.

Coreinfo v.3.2

However, small pitfalls can still be encountered. They concern primarily the guest operating system. Windows versions Server 2000/2003 and Windows 2000 / XP.

First, for the correct operation of older versions of Windows OS running Hyper-V, you will need to install the appropriate utilities and drivers in the guest OS. Which, in turn, require installation latest version Service Pack. Therefore, before migrating to a virtual environment, you should, if possible, upgrade the portable OS to the maximum.

The second problem is related to the activation of OEM-versions of Windows below Vista / 2008 (there is no such problem in Volume-versions). Since the hardware (network adapter and motherboard) changes when migrating from a physical to a virtual system Windows activation becomes invalid. In the case of Windows Server 2008 / Windows Vista and higher, this problem is not critical and does not lead to a failure, it will be enough just to reactivate. But old versions of Windows will require you to restore activation before starting, but it will not be possible to complete it via the Internet until the drivers are installed on the network adapter.

By the way, from the point of view of license purity, P2V transfer for OEM versions is unacceptable and is allowed only for Volume or Retail versions of Windows. Therefore, do not forget to calculate the cost of licensing when planning such operations.

sysinternals hyper-v virtualization

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Hyper-V Nested Virtualization Drafts

Virtualization, Server Administration, System Administration

Microsoft released this week Windows assembly 10 Insider Preview Build 10565. This build adds several new features to the operating system. In particular, Ben Armstrong (Hyper-V manager at Microsoft) mentions in his blog that the ability to create nested Hyper-V virtualization in Windows 10 has been added. Nested virtualization allows you to run Hyper-V inside a virtual machine and create several virtual machines within this main virtual machine. You can run multiple Hyper-V hypervisors without the need for additional physical hardware.

How to enable nested virtualization is described by Theo Thompson in his blog, the process consists of the following steps:

Step 1: Creating a virtual machine

Step 2: Run the script Enable-NestedVm.ps1 to simplify the process of checking requirements (for example, that dynamic memory should be turned off). This script will validate the configuration, change what is incorrect (with permission), and enable nested virtualization for the virtual machine. Please note that the VM must be turned off.

Step 3: Installing Hyper-V Components on a Guest VM

Step 4: Turning on the network. After nested virtualization is enabled in the virtual machine, enable MAC-spoofing for network operation. Run PowerShell as an administrator on the host machine and run:

Step 5: Create a nested VM.

Nested virtualization is still in its early stages of development and testing, so it has several known issues:
1. Both hypervisors must be the latest version of Hyper-V. Other hypervisors will not work. Windows Server 2012R2 and builds prior to 10565 will not work.
2. After nested virtualization is enabled in a virtual machine, some functions will no longer be compatible with that virtual machine.

PAE / NX / SSE2 Support Requirements Guide for Windows 8

They will cause errors or prevent the virtual machine from starting altogether:
- dynamic memory must be turned off otherwise the virtual machine will not be able to boot;
- it will not be possible to change the amount of memory;
- it will not be possible to apply checkpoints for a running VM;
- hot migration does not work;
- there is no way to save the VM.
3. After nested virtualization is enabled in a virtual machine, MAC spoofing must be enabled for the network of its guest machines to work.
4. Currently only works on Intel processors with Intel VT-x support enabled.
5. Nested virtualization requires a lot of memory. I managed to run a virtual machine in a virtual machine with 4 GB of RAM, but everything was terribly slow.

hyper-v, Nested Virtualization, Nested Virtualization

Source of articles: Habr.

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