Changes

Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 includes a feature which that allows the operating system from a physical computer to be converted to run inside a virtual machine. This is a concept referred to as a ''physical to virtual'' or ''P2V'' conversion. Conversions can be performed on a number of different Microsoft Windows based operating systems, details of which will be provided later in this chapter. In addition, two forms of conversion (online and offline) are available. Whether or not each conversion type is available also depends on the operating system running on the source computer.

An online P2V conversion use uses the Volume Shadow Copy Services Service to perform the conversion while the source computer system is still running, enabling a conversion to take place without any interruption of service. An offline P2V conversion involves restarting the source computer system using the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) environment, resulting in a temporary loss of service from the source computer during the conversion process.

A P2V conversion can only be performed on a limited range of Microsoft Windows editions. Further, P2V online conversions are limited to an even smaller subset of supported Windows editions as illustrated in the the following table:

* 512MB or more of RAM when performing offline conversions.

* Source system must be a member of a Workgroupworkgroup, a member of either the same domain as the VMM server or on a different domain with two-way trust established.

* Must have an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface(ACPI).

On the ''Select Source'' screen, enter the name or IP address of the source computer in the first and last fields, together with the credentials of an account on that system with administrative privileges. Clicking ''Next'' displays the ''Virtual Machine Identity'' screen where a the name by by which the new virtual machine will be referenced must be provided along with an optional description. If the default setting for the owner of the virtual machine is not acceptable, change this to the required owner and click ''Next'' to proceed.

If the wizard reports problems connecting to the physical source computer, ensure that the firewall on that system is configured to allow WMI and HTTP traffic. Assuming the system scan reports no problems with the configuration of the source computer, click ''Next'' to proceed to the ''Volume Configuration'' screen shown in the following figure. The purpose of this screen is to select which volumes on the source computer are to be replicated in the virtual machine. Volumes may be selected or deselected to control whether or not they will be converted. In addition, the size of the destination virtual hard disk (VHD) may be altered to a size that is greater (but not less) than the size of the source physical disk. The type of virtual disk may also be changed from ''dynamic'' to ''fixed'' (for more information on virtual hard disk types refer to the [[Creating and Configuring Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs)]] chapter of the Virtuatopia [[Hyper-V Essentials]] on-line book).

The Conversion Options pane also provide provides the option to turn off the source system one the conversion process is completed. Once the virtual hard disk and conversion type settings are configured, click ''Next'' to configure the virtual processor and memory requirements for the destination virtual machine. On the remaining screens, specify the destination host, the filesystem location on the host for the virtual machine files, the network on the host to which any virtual network adapters are to be connected and additional settings relating to the behavior of the virtual machine when the host system starts and stops.

Once the above configuration settings have been configured, the ''Conversion Information'' screen performs a prerequisites check to ensure the conversion can be performed successfully. Ussing Assuming no problems are found, the wizard will report ''No issues detected''.

If the converted virtaual virtual machine is to be started automatically when the conversion finished, select the ''Start virtual machine after deploying it to host'' option. Assuming that the summary is correct, click ''Create'' to initiate the conversion process.