TI usage to move machine VMWARE

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by n5eea, Jun 1, 2006.

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  1. n5eea

    n5eea Registered Member

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    I'm new to looking at TI. I'm also new to playing with VMware, but have workstation installed on an XP desktop already.

    Is there an already documented process on how to use TI to copy a pc or server to a VMware session?

    I've read the forum and there seems to be segments of instructions, but nothing definitive and defintely nothing definitive on Acronis' web site.

    I understand I can copy a hard drive, and clone a hard drive with TI, but how do I get an ISO file to use with VMware from TI?

    Are there any extra files or applications involved or does everyone have to reinvent the when to use these programs?

    Are there simple step-by-step instructions somewhere for a newbie to follow?

    TIA
     
  2. Michael777

    Michael777 Registered Member

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    Exactly my question.

    TI 9.1 Workstation with the Universal Restore Plugin, can apparently perform a physical to physical P2P migration.

    It should also be able to perform a physical to virtual (P2V) migration. VM environments, such as VMware and Virtual Server 2005, have devices that require drivers, just like physical machines.
     
  3. Tech1

    Tech1 Registered Member

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    Not that I have seen, but here is a clue - (I'm no expert) - Spend some time getting familiar w/VMWARE. You can set the VM's CD drive to be either an .ISO or a physical drive. Correct? Now if you go into your new VM's bios at first boot (be quick) you can set it to boot from the CD device.

    I have used the .ISO to boot from & create VM's but it stands to reason you could also boot from the (physical) recovery disk in any version of ATI with the same result.
     
  4. n5eea

    n5eea Registered Member

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    Thanks for the reply.
    If TI makes an image of a drive and saves it as a .TIB file.

    How.... "exactly"... does one covert a .TIB file to a .ISO file.

    Without have seen/done it yet, I can somewhat follow some of the logic in threads I have read... but I don't understand how to make/convert from TIB to ISO so that VMware can use the ISO file to import the image.

    I'd like to try going from a physical machine, to a virtual machine. Once I learn that, I'd like to take a copy of the virtual machine back to the original physical box, or a different physical box.

    Supposedly TI can do this. But I'm not following how its done as it isn't exactly documented.

    Anyone got clear instructions to follow?
     
  5. Tech1

    Tech1 Registered Member

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    You don't quite have the concept. You do not convert a .tib to an .iso.

    You boot a VM with the TI ISO so that you can then choose to restore a previously created .tib file to your newly created VM. Wish I could take the time to give you step by step instructions but can not right now. I would reccomend that you work with what you have, ask questions if you get stuck.
     
  6. n5eea

    n5eea Registered Member

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    Correct, I don't have the "concept". Maybe I'm not following the interchaning terminology between the ISO and TIB.

    When I use TI to make an image of a drive on a computer. The resultant file is named xxxx.TIB. It's not named xxxx.ISO.

    VMware does not use or work with .TIB files to my knowledge. It does work with ISO files.

    So... if TI creates a .TIB file when I image a drive.... where/how does the ISO term apply to a TI image?? How do I get from a TI .TIB to a TI .ISO file?
    ==================================
    Lets try the question differently.

    Let's say I have TI 9 installed on a Windows 2000 server I want to copy to a VMware session.
    I use TI on the primary win2k physical server.
    I make a "image" of the server and save to a external drive conected to the server.
    I now have a 12GB .TIB file "image" of the primary physical server that I can move somewhere. (the TIB file won't fit on a DVD).

    I have VMware workstation on a different (secondary) computer.
    I have already created a plain vm session of a windows 2000 server install on the 2nd computer.
    I have copied the TIB file to a large hd on the 2nd computer so it can be used with vmware.

    Now begs the real question....
    How do I get the 12gb TIB file "INTO" the windows 2000 server VM session?
     
  7. n5eea

    n5eea Registered Member

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    "You boot a VM with the TI ISO"
    Huh? What TI ISO? where did the TI ISO come from? Or where do I get it?

    "you can then choose to restore a previously created .tib file to your newly created VM."
    I got that.... It's 12GB in size stored on a USB HD.
     
  8. Tech1

    Tech1 Registered Member

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    You create it with TI. It is an option when creating bootable rescue media.
    Also Reread my message # 5 above...
    You may not need to do it that way. You can probably boot into TI on your VM via a physical CD drive / rescue CD..
     
  9. Michael777

    Michael777 Registered Member

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    Forget ISO. TI ISO simply means you are starting TI from a CD, by booting from the CD that TI creates (for the purpose of restoring PC with a damaged disk for instance).

    So you start a new VM that has been set to boot from CD, TI loads from the CD, you then restore your 12GB *.tib file into the VM.
     
  10. Tech1

    Tech1 Registered Member

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    No Cigar. "Boot from the TI .iso" means just what it says. It is not a CD. It is the .iso file that you can create with TI. With VMWARE you can assign an .iso file as if it were a physical CDR device. But yes, please do try to boot from a physical CD. Have not done it for purposes other than creating a new VM from scratch, but as I have been saying - it should work.
     
  11. n5eea

    n5eea Registered Member

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    I think I'm beginning to understand the process. But I'm still having problems with the TI ISO comments.

    Exactly where/how does the TI ISO get created?
    The server/PC box I made the .TIB image from, only has a cdrom (reader only). Can/do I make the TI ISO on another machine?

    If so, what is this process?

    I understand how to point VMware to use a ISO file as an ectra drive and that it can be set to boot from the drive.

    I'm understanding (I think) your comments of "AFTER" I boot from the ISO, use the .TIB image.

    But I'm still dark on how the TI ISO file is created or how I can create it on a computer I made the TIB file, when it has no burner.

    Can you clarify this?
     
  12. Tech1

    Tech1 Registered Member

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    Sorry - not much time here to direct you exactly where to click on things - this is basic stuff that is in the manual.
     
  13. Michael777

    Michael777 Registered Member

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    Correcting myself here...I use TI9.0 which I believe only can create a Rescue Boot CD, as opposed to TI9.1 additionaly being able to create a Rescue Boot ISO image. I am familiar with VMware's (and VPC2004's or VS2005's) .iso capture feature.
     
  14. Tsu

    Tsu Registered Member

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    N5EEA Ham?

    Have a TI Boot Disk.

    The TIB from the old system will be a full drive, not just a partition. So it might contain stuff such as a Dell Utility partition etc. You want to restore all this to save you the grief of modifying the boot.ini when the first partition is not the boot partition.

    Create your W2K VM, create the number and size of drive(s) you want equal to the drive image in the TIB ( sizes can vary but make sure you have all the drives to receive the image, configure the VM to use a physical CD ( my experience is that it must also be in 'legacy mode") and set the VM BIOS ( reboot and F2 ) to boot to a CD.

    Place the TIB on a share on the host or in the VM Shared folder.

    Reboot the VM with the TI9 CD installed, do a restore of the old drive image using the TIB located on the share.

    That's it. Reboot without the CD and let W2K find all the new hardware. You'll need the W2K install CD ( \I386 )and probably have to do more than one reboot to get all the new hardware installed. Hopefully you have a slip streamed I386 on CD so you don't need to reinstall the service packs when W2K starts asking for the installation CD.

    Don't run the VM Server on the same network as the real server or you will get into trouble with your Active Directory, Primary DS etc. If you run your W2K server with static IP that IP will remain attached to the now hidden old NIC rather than the NIC in the VM. You can run Device Manager in a mode to show hidden devices to remove the old NIC to free up that static IP for use on the VM NIC.

    This is very useful stuff for getting a server onto a VMWare image for testing or creating a server farm on a single box by migrating several servers to VM images.
     
  15. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello n5eea,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

    Please note that you can create the ISO image of Acronis True Image bootable disk on the hard disk with help of Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows. Please find the information about it in Chapter 9. "Creating bootable media" in the Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows User Guide.

    You may also find this thread helpful.

    Thank you.
    --
    Aleksandr Isakov
     
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