Re: [Xen-users] Physical Windows HDD Install to Xen DomU Disk Image

[Andrew Bobulsky <rulerof@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Todd,

On May 6, 2013, at 1:00 PM, "Wardzinski, Todd"
<todd.wardzinski@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Chris,
>
> I'm fairly motivated to get this to work :-).  If you have any more 
> links/information, I would surely appreciate it.
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chris [mailto:tknchris@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, May 06, 2013 11:37 AM
> To: Wardzinski, Todd
> Cc: Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Physical Windows HDD Install to Xen DomU Disk Image
>
> In the case of windows the big issue is you need something which can properly 
> update windows hal to handle the drastic change in hardware.
> Acronis can do this with their backup products and the key feature you need 
> is "universal restore" which will make sure that the underlying os HAL is 
> updated so that windows can boot. This is just one commercial product of 
> which there are several and you can do some of the steps manually if 
> motivated enough.
>
> Hope that helps
> chris
>
> On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 10:38 AM, Wardzinski, Todd 
> <todd.wardzinski@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> All,
>>
>>
>>
>> I have tried a number of methods found through various sites on the
>> Internet to get a physical windows install converted to a Xen DomU
>> disk image.  Such
>> as:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.       DomU disk image creation (formatted as ntfs).  We then mounted the
>> disk image (loop) and directly copied the physical mount image data to
>> the disk image.
>>
>> 2.       Qemu-img convert from physical HDD to VHD.
>>
>> 3.       XenConvert (from Citrix) to VHD
>>
>>
>>
>> So far I have not had luck in getting any of these to produce a good copy.
>> Does anyone have any good references for this problem?  Possibly a
>> method that works time and time again?
>>
>>
>>
>> Please let me know if you have any questions?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Todd
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>
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If you're working with Windows 8 or 2012, Windows will actually be
able to detect that it's missing a boot-critical driver and install
any missing storage devices during boot up... It's really, really cool
:)

However, if not, you're going to likely have to do a minor hack to
what's called the CriticalDeviceDatabase in the registry to get it to
boot.  Once you're able to get the Windows Boot Manager started,
that's all you'll need to get up and running.  I can give more details
when you reach that point if you like :)

This works for xp/2003 as well, but its a little harder. Make sure you
disable automatic restart on system failure, just tap F8 during boot.
You're looking for a 7B error, "INACCESSIBLE BOOT VOLUME" I believe.

As far as booting the DomU goes, you should be able to simply enter
the physical device as your DomU's hda device.  My server 2012 install
is on an intel raid, so my hda device is something like /dev/dm-0 .
Make sure you map the whole disk (like /dev/sdb and not /dev/sdb1).

Cheers,
Andrew Bobulsky

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