This page intentionally left blank Download at 10 Creating Guest Images from Existing Production and Virtual Systems This chapter focuses on the process of using System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 to create a guest image from a production system and from another virtual guest image for the purpose of creating a static lab environment. This process is also used to create real-time replications of images for operational purposes. IN THIS CHAPTER . Understanding Virtual Machine Conversions . Performing a P2V Conversion . Performing a V2V Conversion . Creating a Virtual Lab Understanding Virtual Machine Conversions VMM 2008 enables the administrator to convert existing physical computers. | This page intentionally left blank Download at 10 Creating Guest Images from Existing Production and Virtual Systems This chapter focuses on the process of using System Center Virtual Machine Manager VMM 2008 to create a guest image from a production system and from another virtual guest image for the purpose of creating a static lab environment. This process is also used to create real-time replications of images for operational purposes. IN THIS CHAPTER Understanding Virtual Machine Conversions Performing a P2V Conversion Performing a V2V Conversion Creating a Virtual Lab Understanding Virtual Machine Conversions VMM 2008 enables the administrator to convert existing physical computers into virtual machines VMs . This is known as a production to virtual or P2V conversion. VMM simplifies P2V conversions by providing an automated wizard for much of the conversion process. VMM 2008 can also converting VMs from other virtualization platforms such as VMware ESX and Microsoft Virtual Server to Windows Hyper-V. This process is known as virtual to virtual or V2V conversion and can be performed with different processes depending on the source virtualization platform. Physical Computers That Can Be Converted There are two methods for converting physical computers to VMs. Online P2V conversions are performed using the Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS to copy data while the server continues to service user requests. The source computer is not interrupted during a P2V online conversion. Download at 302 10 Creating Guest Images from Existing Production and Virtual Systems A P2V offline conversion is performed by restarting the source computer in the Windows Preinstallation Environment Windows PE . VMM then converts the physical disks to Virtual Hard Disks VHDs . The information in Table shows the supported operating systems that VMM can convert using the P2V process. TABLE Supported Operating Systems for P2V Conversion Operating System
