Question of physically migrating Win Srv2003 OS to Virtualbox under Ubuntu 11.10?

Question

virtual box

There is the following problem: There is a physical server running Windows Server 2003. You need to transfer this system to VirtualBox running under Ubuntu 11.10. And is it possible to do this in "hot mode" (without shutting down the system) as we say in VMware vCenter Converter .
I will be glad to any advice.

Answer 1

There will be a lot of problems, in any case, Windows is not Linux, and hardware is critical for it.
From the HDD controller to the video drivers, everything needs to be replaced.
And that means you have to sweat.
It seems to me that it is easier to raise a new clean Windows in a virtual machine and transfer all the settings.

Answer 2

At one time, I successfully transferred the installed Windows 7 to virtualbox.
I did it like this:
1) With the help of acronis true image, I made a backup copy of the partition with Windows.
2) I booted into virtualbox from the acronis disk image and restored windows from the backup from step 1.
But I had to turn off windows during the backup (perhaps there are ways to backup without shutting down).
The resulting clone in virtualbox worked fine, but slowed down insanely.

Answer 3

in hot mode is definitely impossible, there will be interruptions in work in any case.
make a copy of your Win2003 system and try to run it in vbox, if it starts right away, then just set vbox on the winchester with win2003, if it doesn’t start, remember the “dance with a tambourine” and repeat it over the HDD itself

Answer 4

it's impossible to do it on the fly. even in the case of using VMware vCenter Converter, an image is taken from the system ... and then the files can be merged ... but one fig network settings need to be reconfigured.
Acronix option is one of the correct ones. but it is necessary to get stuck. The main thing is that this is not a domain controller, otherwise everything is more complicated and more critical.

Answer 5

It is unlikely that you can do it without stopping. To create a virtual disk from a physical machine, try using the utility from Russinovich - Disk2vhd technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415
As far as I remember, vhd format virtual disks should work without problems in Virtual Box

Answer 6

I tried it a couple of times, but it never worked. True, I tried to deploy on KVM. When starting in KVM, Acronis says that it cannot work with such disks.
I was looking for ways to convert the image file, it seems that there are sane ways, but all are somehow confused.
I tried one method with a converter from vmware, but then Windows showed a blue screen. I threw it all away, and installed a clean Windows, transferred services and settings. Spent a lot of time :)