Some recycled electrons, but relevant none the less.  I had a question posted to my contact info link on the site a while back asking about some technology around Virtualization that was discussed during the break and post event Q&A scrum.

We've got some GREAT new content and features coming out with Virtual Server 2005 - R2 edition (more on this later) but this question was around Physical to Virtual migration (or P2V as they say in the virtualization world).

There are a couple of 3rd party solutions out there (www.platespin.com comes to mind, but there are others as well) that provide P2V management and functionality with a lot of value add features. But have no fear - you can do P2V for free, provided you own a Server 2003 Enterprise server and don't mind getting your hands dirty with a little command line stuff. We make one that is functional, non GUI and builds on the power of Automated Deployment Services which is included in Server 2003 Enterprise. It's called the Virtual Server Migration ToolKit (VSMT) and if you have not tried it out yourselves, you can still download all the parts from here.

Word of advice - download it and run the setup.exe from the console of the enterprise server.  It's an automated install with all the parts in the proper sequence.  I've bashed my head a couple of times trying to do the manual install until I decided to try the automatic way.  Oh yeah - there is also a great whitepaper you will want to read up on about P2V and the VSMT which can be found here.  Make sure you download and read it!!!

I suggest you use a "roving P2V server" like I do where all the parts are installed on one machine and it can be transported to wherever the Physical machine is located. Once the Physical has been converted to a Virtual, all the critical device drivers are replaced with virtual ones so don't expect to see your Compaq Smart Array once you reboot.  What you WILL see is a locally connected drive of the same approximate size with all the data, but it will be using the virtualized Adaptec 2940 adapter instead. Check this out in a lab - it's way cool and for the most part it just works!

I'll be posting some new stuff on Virtual Server 2003 R2 in the very near future, so if virtualization is important to you stay tuned!

Don't forget - you can use the Contact link if you like, but don't be surprised to find your questions turned into blog posts!  I prefer to share things with a larger audience on the blog site so that all can benefit.