P2V Prerequisites in VMM

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

Check the version of VMM that you have. You can perform physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversions with VMM in System Center 2012 and System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

You can also use the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) for P2V conversions. For more information, see Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0.

The physical computer to be converted must meet the following requirements:

• Must have at least 512 MB of RAM.

• Cannot have any volumes larger than 2040 GB.

• Must have an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) BIOS. Vista WinPE will not install on a non-ACPI BIOS.

• Must be accessible by VMM and by the virtual machine host.

• Cannot be in a perimeter network.

  Note

  A perimeter network, which is also known as a screened subnet, is a collection of devices and subnets that are placed between an intranet and the Internet to help protect the intranet from unauthorized Internet users. The source computer for a physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion can be in any other network topology in which the VMM management server can connect to the source computer to temporarily install an agent and can make Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) calls to the source computer.

• The source computer should not have encrypted volumes.

  Warning

  If the source computer has encrypted volumes, an offline P2V conversion may render the computer unbootable.

The following restrictions apply to P2V operating system support:

• VMM does not support P2V conversion for computers with Itanium architecture–based operating systems.

• VMM does not support P2V on source computers that are running Windows NT Server 4.0.

• VMM does not support converting a physical computer running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) to a virtual machine that is managed by Hyper-V. Hyper-V does not support Integration Components on computers running Windows Server 2003 with SP1. As a result, there is no mouse control when you use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to the virtual machine. To avoid this issue, update the operating system to Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) before you convert the physical computer.

The following table lists the supported operating systems for P2V conversion:

In VMM, a host is a physical computer on which you can deploy one or more virtual machines. To run P2V conversion, you need a host on which to place the image of the source computer.

Requirements for the host server include the following:

• The destination host during a P2V conversion must be running a supported operating system. For a list of supported operating systems, see the followings:

  • For System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager or for System Center 2012 SP1: System Requirements: Virtual Machine Hosts in System Center 2012 and in System Center 2012 SP1.

  • For System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager: Preparing your environment for System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager.

• The destination host cannot be in a perimeter network.

• As in any virtual machine creation or migration, the destination host for a P2V conversion must have sufficient memory for the virtual machine in addition to memory that is reserved for the host operating system. By default, the amount of memory that is reserved for the host operating system is 256 MB in System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager. If the host does not have enough memory, you will receive a placement error in the Convert Physical Server (P2V) Wizard.

VMM can do an online conversion or an offline conversion.

The following table lists some of the differences between the online and offline P2V conversions.

How to Convert Physical Computers to Virtual Machines by Using VMM