How to transfer Windows OS from a virtual disk to a physical one?

Question

System administration

Hello everyone!
There is a task to transfer the server to another OS (from windows 7 to windows server 2016). The server should be down for the shortest possible time. I am working on the following course of action: I
create a virtual machine through Hyper-V, install Windows server 2016 on it, configure all the necessary software, then somehow transfer the virtual machine to a hard disk, insert the hard disk into the server and everything starts working.
Is it even possible?

Answer 1

Try the free Clonezilla.
1. In the virtual machine, we change the hdd driver to the standard one (so as not to get a blue screen after the transfer due to the difference in hardware.). Read on the Internet "transferring OS to another PC without reinstalling"
2. Mount the target physical hdd to the virtual machine.
3. Load the original virtual machine from the Clonezilla isoshnik
4. Clone from the virtual disk to the physical one according to the instructions on the Internet (there are features / recommendations for Windows)
5. Let's rewind the physical. hdd from the virtual machine and put it in place, try to boot.
The same can be done with Acronis.
In general, there is a Vhd2Disk utility and transfer disk2vhd to your health.

Answer 2

Can you explain in another way what you have and what you need to do?
"There is a task to transfer the server to another OS (from windows 7 to windows server 2016)." - there is no direct migration from Windows 7 to Server 2016.
"then I somehow transfer the virtual machine to the hard disk" - you can do this using Veeam Agent for Windows, for example.
It is free and helps to deploy the archive on new hardware, different from the old one.

Answer 3

Is it even possible?

It's possible.
But unpredictable. Sometimes it will take off without problems, sometimes not.
On the new hardware, it is quite possible that you will have to solve a bunch of problems and spend a lot of time on it.
Depends on both hardware and server settings.
If the question is to transfer and the server is guaranteed to work without problems, then this is impossible.
Virtual machines do this - so that the installed server in the virtual machine can be transferred to any machine - as long as the hypervisor is standing. With real iron, this will not work.

Answer 4

You can try using the audit mode to make a custom image with the necessary software and then install it on the server, following the example of this article

Answer 5

I would consider an option - how to leave the new server virtual. For example, we install a new virtual server on a computer, turn off the combat server during non-working hours, install a hypervisor on it and migrate a new virtual server, as a result we get a convenient and reliable solution. To reduce downtime, it is possible to launch a new virtual server during the installation of the hypervisor, but for this there must be a good host configuration.