Archive for the ‘Ultimate-P2V’ Category

Paul Whitfield from Australia recently contacted me with a new version of UP2V which improves on the classic version and makes it easier to use. Paul has also removed some bugs from the original versions. I’ve not had time to evaluate Paul’s handiwork but he assures me that it is very reliable. Right now I am busy with Vi3.5 Beta/Release Candidate and all the decks have been cleared as I gear up to release another RTFM “Upgrade” guide to the new features and functionality. It will probably wind up as free appendix for everyone who buys the eagerly awaited book!

Anyway, to download and read a short guide that Paul has written visit the UP2V page…

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=174

Ulli Hankeln of sanbarrow.com (continuum on the forums) has sent me a driver back for Windows 2003. Ulli has a rather excellent site, and has developed is own unique method for P2V. If you wish to contact Ulli about his driver pack he has a formum catagory here:

http://sanbarrow.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=27

A new version of the Fixvmscsi plug-in has been released. It’s been written by RTFM Education reader, Jeffery Crystal. Jeffery has made some substantial changes and improvements – so many than that I have decided to rename the old plug-in originally written by Qui Hong as the “Classic Version” – and referring to Jeff’s as the “New Improved Version”. Jeff has added better Dell PERC support, and has made the plug-in more work like a plug-in. It is also compatiable with Sherpya XPE Desktop Support.

I’ve yet to have time to test Jeff’s plug-in – as I am up to my neck in writing the new book! But it will be on my to do list when I have more free time.

You can download the new version from the Ultimate-P2V home page

Link:

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=174

This week I learned of a new P2V tool. It’s called ezp2v – it still in development but looks good. Me and Chrus Huss hope to work with this guy – perhaps even consolidatig ezp2v with UlitimateP2V… something like RealllllyEzzzzyUltimateP2V. Catchy or wot?

Check this guy out:

Link:

http://www.ezp2v.net

Jusy a quick post to say, today I successfully P2V’s a physical machine to Virtual Machine running under ESX 3.0 Beta.

The PM was Windows 2003 server (actually running VirtualCenter 2.0) without a Service Pack. 

I suspected that Ultimate-P2V would be uneffected by the move from VM-2 to VM-3. There was quite a bit of new hardware detected, but that is to be expected.

A new plug-in has been added to this site. It’s by a guy called Bandon Gordon (aka notorious_bdg on the Forum’s). Basically it’s a revision of Qui Hong’s original plug-in. It can be used to P2V and V2P Dell Servers (2650/2850) and injects the Perc2 and Perc4 drivers.

If this of interest to you look at the update Ultimate-P2V page

Link:

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=174

I came across a couple cool tools and add-ins that you might find useful inconjunction with a BartPE CD or an Ultimate-P2V disk. They are all hosted at the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4W)

Firstly, they have a installer which adds a tons of network and storage adapter drivers to a standard BartPE disk

Secondly, they have a tool called AutoStreamer this application is used for slipstreaming Service Packs onto your Windows installations CD’s. It is compatiable with 2k, XP, and 2K3

Thirdly, they have a tool called QEMU for Windows which allows you to run ISO images from your HDD in a separate window. It offers many other options…

Link:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm

This week I spent the a day looking at P2V-ing NT4 Terminal Services Edition (Service Pack 6) with Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 with remapped drives.

I was pleasantly surprised as I wasn’t expecting to see this work. Firstly, NT4 TSE isn’t offical supported with VMware’s P2V product. Additionally, NT4 TSE isn’t offically supported on ESX 2.x.x.

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Ultimate-P2V has been available for a very short period of time – already we have been working on some minor bug fixes and improvements. These fixes and improvements include

• VMware Tools service now starts automatically – so there is no need to manually started with net start command. This has been achieved by creating a auto cmd file to be used by BartPE’s Start-Up Plug-in
• Beta Support for XPE – XPE is an add-on which allows you have a Taskbar and Start Menu to a BartPE CD. The new guide includes instructions on how to make the VMware Tools service start automatically. Additionally, the guide explains how to adjust the resolutions and auto-hide settings optimised for running under the virtual machine. We plan to add a menu system to XPE for Fix-VMSCSI. This is currently a “work in progress”
• Quick Guide - It became apparent to me and Chris Huss that our guide was getting a bit long. It was getting a bit “bloated” with lots of “optional” extras and is geared up to a completely manual build process. We recognise that some people would prefer just to download pre-built plug-ins and get started. With this in mind we have created a “quick guide” with these people in mind.
• New Storage Drivers Available - A few months Peter Erleshofer (AKA g[e]sx²) sent me a 4MG zip file of storage drivers. Of course, these drivers have not been tested – as I don’t have such a broad range of hardware!

Very cool, Keep up the innovation
MichaelJKnight

This is COOL ! very GOOD work guys. I like the V2P option… ultimate p2v rocks
[e]sx²

Complied the ISO… no worries… VERY clear instructions thanks. Going to try the rest tomorrow
AMcCreath

Very cool and useful, another excellent tool in the P2V arsenal!
bourkes   

SAH-WEET!
djc49939   

I already posted the news on virtualization.info:
http://www.virtualization.info/2006/01/tool-ultimate-p2v.html
Alessandro Perilli  

I just used this process and it works great. I have about 8 PC’s running as HL7 Interface PC’s (HealthCare). I need to migrate them to virtual hardware and I’m not budgeted for P2V software. I was looking at a lot of hours building and configuring these from scratch. Some have messy Network stacks having to hit legacy NetWare servers. The killer is that I have a ghost image of everyone, it’s how they keep an archive of the machine. I used LANDesk with a proxy PXE to boot to the Ghost GUI, imaged to the vdisk, and then use PE Builder with the fixvmscsi plug-in to add the necessary drivers. Works beautifully!

Thanks Chris and Mike! Awesome job on this!

I should add that I have no working knowledge of P2V, I had never tried anything like this before. So the document does a great job of walking you through the process. Thanks also to Qui for creating the fixvmscsi plug-in. It is a huge help!
ericg   

Very nice!!! Thank you!!!!
jasonboche