Lessons learnt while P2Ving Servers

I'm in the process of P2Ving some legacy servers to reduce rack space and thought I'd document the issues/errors/recommendations that I've encountered while doing it.

Recommendation: Document at least the following details before performing a cold clone of a physical server;

1. Local Admin password (Reset if required)
2. Current NIC Speed/Duplex
3. IP Address, Subnet Mask & Default Gateway
4. All drive space usage, add ~50% when resizing for the VM
5. Disable the connect to network so that the VM doesn't knock the physical server off when it comes up initially

Recommendation: Try and use a Gigabit network connection for the source server that you're converting, it'll save a lot of time.

Recommendation: I've found that I can monitor the Host's network usage in vCenter to give an indication of the status of the conversion. If there's network activity above the normal trends then the server is receiving information from the P2V process.


Issue: Stuck at 2% progress with the log displaying "Formatting target volume c:..."

Resolution: Change Speed and Duplex of the NIC to 'Auto' if not already configured that way or if at 'Auto' change to a compatible speed.

My VMware vSphere Windows Server 2008 R2 Template

Creating the Template VM

Create a new VM, set the OS as Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
CPU - 1
RAM - 1GB
Disk Type - LSI Logic SAS
Disk Size - 40GB - System
Disk Size - 10GB - Apps

Once completed, remove the Floppy Disk before switching on.
Select the tick box to easily access the VM's BIOS settings when next powered on.

Power on the VM



Configure the BIOS

VM > Edit Settings > Options > Advanced > Boot Options > Force BIOS Setup > The next time the virtual machine boots, force entry into the BIOS setup screen.


Main > Legacy Diskette A



Advanced > I/O Device Configuration



Install VMware Tools

Install VMware Tools from VM > Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools

Choose Custom Install > VMware Device Drivers > and select 'This feature will not be available' for the following drivers;

• Thin Print
• Shared Folders
• Audio Drivers

Change Device driver to cure the jerky mouse

Device Manager > Display Adapters > Standard VGA Graphics Adapter

Right Click > Update Driver software > Browse my computer for driver software > Path:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\Video

The display driver should be detected as a VMware SVGA II and Reboot

Right click on Desktop > Screen Resolution > Advanced Settings > Troubleshooting > Properties > set 'Hardware Acceleration' to Full

Disable Hibernation

Open a Command Prompt by typing POWERCFG -H OFF


Change the Power Profile

Control Panel > Power Options > Change Power Plan to 'High Performance'


Enable Remote Desktop

Right click 'My Computer' > Properties > Remote Settings > Remote tab and select 'Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)'




Change Performance Options

Right click 'My Computer' > Properties >Advanced System Settings > Advanced tab > Performance settings and select 'Adjust for best performance'.


Set Screen saver to Blank

Control Panel > Display > Change Screen saver > Select 'Blank' from the drop down


Set Sounds to None

Control Panel  > Sounds > Sound Tab and select 'No Sounds' from Sound Scheme drop down





Change Notification Area settings

Right click Taskbar > 'Properties' > Taskbar tab and Notification area > Customize



Disable Windows Firewall

  Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Turn Windows Firewall on or off



















Configure SNMP

Go to Server Manager and select 'Features'  > Add Feature > SNMP


Sysprep Preparation

Place a file named 'SetupComplete.cmd' in C:\Windows\Setup and include the line

bcdedit /timeout 8

This will be automatically invoked after sysprep stage and change the OS selection time to 8 seconds upon start-up once the template has been deployed.

Finally place the unattend.xml into the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder before initiating the sysprep process with the following command from a command prompt;

cd c:\windows\system32\sysprep\
sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml

The resulting machine can then be shutdown and converted to a template in vCenter.