Tag Archives: hypervisor

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware

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Zerto Hyper-V to VMware KB ID 0001805

Problem

I’ve known this was possible for a while, I tried to set it up a while ago, but had a nightmare installing SCVMM so I threw my toys out of the pram and did something else. After a chat with a colleague the other week we have client who needs to do this (we are migrating them from Hyper-V into VMware).

So I thought I’d revisit the subject, and this time everything went swimmingly.

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware Pre Requisites 

SCVMM

I work A LOT less with Hyper-V than I do with vSphere, but for Zerto to talk to a Hyper-V environment, it needs to have SCVMM. This can be added to either a stand alone Hyper-V host, or a Hyper-V Cluster. For the VMware techs try to think of it like vCenter for Hyper-V (only more clunky).

The most annoying part of SCVMM is installing it, it will go to the end of the install, then casually inform you, you are missing something it needs, this will happen multiple times if you dont get your ducks in a row. I installed SQL (standard) beforehand. It will also need SQL Server Command Line Utilities (download separately to SQL). The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit, and after 2019 they’ve removed the Windows Preinstallation Environment features and made that a separate ‘Add-On’. You may also need some ODBC drivers. (If only Microsoft has put all these requirements in the install media!)

Once that’s done, adding your Hyper-V environment is pretty easy.

Note: You dont have to change the way you manage your Hyper-V environment just because you have SCVMM (In fact I’m ripping it out after this).

Zerto

I’m assuming you have Zerto setup in the source and target environment (if you are temporarily setting it up in the source Hyper-V environment) then if you have IP connectivity to the ZVM on the VMware (target environment) then you can use your existing licences from there (or simply paste in your existing licence).

For the uninitiated – you install Zerto on a ZVM (Zerto Virtual Manager) in my case on a Server 2019 server > Then you deploy VRA (Virtual Replication Appliances) to all your HOSTS. You can then setup sites, and replicate virtual machines between those sites using VPGs (Virtual Protection Groups). That’s saved you a weeks course!

The process is more or less identical for  both Hyper-V and VMware, except one you point at SCVMM and the other at vCenter.

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware VMWare Tools Deployment

To make the operation much smoother you should install the VMware tools on the machine while they are still in Hyper-V (so post migration/failover) they come up cleanly. Unfortunately VMware do not make this simple (as you will see in a minute). You can either go to VMware and download the VMware tools (requires a logon). Or Simply get them from your existing ESX hosts.

Use either WinSCP for FileZilla and SFTP into you ESX hosts (you may need to enable SSH first) you will find the windows.iso image for VMware tools in /vmimages/tools-isoimages 

Note: there’s also a linux.iso in here, if you have ginger hair and wear AC/DC T-shirts, (despite not knowing any songs.)

Mount the iso file somewhere and run setup64.exe (unless it’s the thirteen hundreds, and you are still running x32 bit servers).

It will complain that;

The VMware Tools should only be installed inside a virtual machine

Well that’s great, we are stuck in a catch 22?

Well not really LEAVE the error message on the screen and navigate to the %TEMP% directory. Here you find a folder with a big long name that looks like a GUID with ‘~setup’ on the end of its name > Open that folder and grab these three files, (copy them to your desktop). At this point you can click OK on the error message and dismiss any other VMware prompts.

Now you need to edit the MSI file and remove the environmental check so you can install them, to do that get a copy of OrcaMSI Install and run it. Open > navigate to VMware Tools64.msi > Open.

Tables > InstallUISequence > VM_CheckRequirements > Right click > Drop Row > OK > CLICK SAVE! > Exit Orca.

You can use the ‘doctored’ MSI file to install the tools on your Hyper-V host(s) or if there’s A LOT you can install the MSI across all the machines with a group policy. YOU DONT NEED TO REBOOT post install, the server will reboot during migration.

What are the other TWO files for? They are just in case your machines do not have the C++Redistributable on them, you will know if yours are missing because the VMware tools install will stop and say; 

Service ‘VMware Alias Manager and Ticket Service’ (VGAuthService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services”

If yours does that, that’s what those other two files are for (x32 and x64 versions as applicable).

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware Site Pairing

It does not really matter which way round you do this (as you will see in a minute) on one of your ZVMs > Sites > Generate Pairing Token > Copy. (then take that to the OTHER ZVM.

Sites > Pair > Give the ZVM the IP of the Other ZVM > Paste in the pairing token > Pair.

Time to go and get a coffee, after a while you should see something like this.

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware VPG Setup

I’m doing this at the Hyper-V (Source) end  > VPG > Add > Give the VPG a name and priority > Next.

Add in the source VM(s) > Next.

I’m sticking with the defaults (thin provisioned target) > Next.

Select the target site > I’m manually adding the host and datastore at the other end (you can select a cluster instead and let VMware decide) > Next.

We are migrating to the production network at the other side. If I wanted to do test failovers I can add a test network, but here there’s no point so I’ve set them the same > Recovery Folder is the folder in VMware (I spent a good sixty seconds staring a that!) > Next.

Here we are actually on the same network, but in real life you may need to re-ip the server when its moved/failed-over so to replicate that Ive added a static IP we can check post migration. Select the NIC > Edit Selected > Change accordingly > Save > Next.

Note: Hey Zerto, I’d have preferred a ‘wildcard octet option‘ i.e. 192.168.X.{number} to 192.168.Y.{number} like Veeam does!

We don’t need to offload backups to long term retention  > Next.

Take a quick look at the summary > Done.

Depending on network connectivity and speed, it might take a while, but you are waiting until it says “Meeting SLA”.

Zerto Hyper-V to VMware Move (Failover)

I’m using failover rather than move > Live > Select the VPG > Select the server(s) >Next.

I want my source server to shutdown > Next.

Failover Start.

Here we are moving a VM for A to B, if it were to fail or there was a problem I’ve still got the original VM in Hyper-V I can power it back on so I’m not too concerned > Start Failover.

Pretty quickly there’s a flurry of activity in VMware and the new VM is powering up, (it will reboot a couple of times).

Notice I’m connecting with the VMware remote console now, let’s check that IP and make sure we’ve got internet connectitity.

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Kudos to Dave Williams for sorting me a Zerto NFR License

VMware Workstation – Error – ” Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled”

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KB ID 0000540 

Problem

Seen on VMware Workstation, when attempting to virtualise a product that IS a virtualisation hypervisor (ESX for example).

Error: Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs.

At first I (wrongly) assumed that I needed to enable something in the BIOS on my laptop, and searched though every page to enable some virtualization setting that was turned off. But that’s NOT what it’s telling you. what it is telling you is you are trying to virtualize a virtualization product, so all the clever VT settings from your physical machines CPU will be shown to VMware workstation. But that presents a Virtual CPU to the OS you are installing as a guest (In the case above ESX) and THAT virtual CPU does NOT have Intel- VT-x/EPT enabled.

So a “Nested VM” – is a Guest VM, running Inside a Guest Hypervisor, that’s been virtualized.

Solution

Note: I’m using VMware workstation 8.

1. Right click the VM in question and select “Settings”.

2. Hardware Tab > Processors > Tick the option to enable VT-x/EPT or V/RVI > OK.

3. Restart the guest machine.

Note: You can also do this be editing the machines .vmx file with a text editor and adding the following lines;

[box]

monitor.virtual_mmu = "hardware"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

vhv.enable = "TRUE"

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"

[/box]

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VMware Jumpy /Erratic mouse on Server 2008 R2 Virtual Machine

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KB ID 0000377 

Problem

Seen on Windows Server 2008 R2 running on VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 and 4.1

Solution

Firstly, I’m assuming you are running the latest version of VMware tools on the machine in question, this procedure was carried out with VMware tools version 8.3.2 and cures the problem.

1. On the affected VM Click Start > In the search run box type > devmgmt.msc {enter}

2. Expand “Display adapters” Right click the one in use > “Update Driver Software.”

3. Browse to ” C:/Program Files/Common Files/VMware/Drivers/wddm_video” > Next.

4. When finished it should say “VMware SVGA 3D” Drivers have installed successfully. > Close

5. You will be prompted for a reboot, do so.

Note: Also ensure that you have allowed at least 8MB RAM for the graphics card (machine needs to be powered off before you can edit this).

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NA

Is Virtual Center 4.1 Supported on Windows Server 2008 R2?

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KB ID 0000379 

Problem

ES! it is, if in doubt see the compatibility matrix. But you have tried to install it and seen an error?

Error: This product can only be installed on the following 64-bit operating systems: Windows XP SP2 or above Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008

Solution

Essentially this just a bad error message that bears no resemblance the the actual problem!

The REAL REASON you are seeing this error is because you re trying to install vCenter on a domain controller.

This happens because, as part of the vCenter 4.1 setup the following takes place,

And if the server is a Domain controller, AD LDS cannot be installed. You will notice that if you watch the “Roles” section during the install of vCenter, that a role drops onto the list.

Final Thoughts

For anyone who thinks “Well Ill put vCenter on first then make the server a domain controller”. That won’t work either, if you try that you will see this error,

Error: The TCP ports shown below are required by Active Directory Domain Services, but are already in use on this computer. 389 ldap

To be honest a more descriptive error message would help. (Cheers VMware!). It’s not as if you cant do it…

Same thing on Server 2008

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NA

Using Openfiler and vSphere ESX / ESXi 5

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KB ID 0000380

Problem

Openfiler is a free NAS / SAN prebuilt Linux distribution, that can provide iSCSI storage to your VMware environment, it’s ideal for small setups (This video was made with all the devices running in VMware workstation 7, on my laptop. That’s two ESXi servers, a vCenter server, and the Openfiler iSCSI target server).

Solution

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Openfiler Thanks to VMware for the free copy of VMware Workstation.

 

Resizing Windows Volumes / Drives in VMware vSphere / ESX

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KB ID 0000381 

Problem

This article is primarily geared towards making your guest virtual machines hard drives LARGER, If you want to SHRINK or make the drive smaller then see the following article.

Resizing Guest Hard Drives using the VMware Converter

Solution

Re sizing a Guests Hard Drive (Make it larger)

1. On the properties of the VM select the hard disk in question and locate its size.

2. Enter the new size and hit OK. Note: Making the drive size smaller, will have no affect, if you want to do that clone the drive. If the option is “Greyed out” then make sure you DO NOT have any snapshots for this machine.

Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 1 – Graphically

Note: To do this using diskpart skip forward to number 10.

3. On the guest > Right click “My Computer” > Manage > Locate “Disk Management”. You will see there’s some free space that’s appeared on the end of the drive, (Click action > Re-scan if you can’t see it).

4. Simply right click the existing volume and select “Extend Volume”.

5. Next.

6. Copy in the extra space you want to assign (all of it probably) > Next.

7. Finish.

8. All the physical drive should now be committed.

9. And just to be sure, look in “My Computer” the drive is now 300 GB.

Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 2 – From Command Line with diskpart

10. Start > run > cmd{enter}

[box]diskpart list volume&lt select volume x –Where x is the volume number of the volume to be re sized[/box]

11. The final command is simply extend (This uses ALL the available free space.) Note the volume size in the picture below has jumped up by 40 GB.

Resizing a System (boot) Partition.

Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 can do this quite happily. Older versions of Windows do not like having their system drive re sized, you see the following error if you try,

Error: The volume you have selected may not be extended. Please select another volume and try again.

Option 1 (Connect this drive to another machine)

In a virtual environment this is much simpler, but even if its a real physical hard drive, you can put it into another server and re size it. In an ESX environment simply do the following,

1. Shut down the machine that needs its drive re sizing, then go to another virtual machine’s properties and select add.

2. Hard Disk > Next.

3. Select “Use existing virtual disk” > Next.

4. Browse to the the drive we want to re size > Next.

5. Next.

6. Finish.

7. Now on the VM (Action > Re-scan disks). You will see the drive, and it’s not listed as a system drive, so you can extend it using any of the methods listed above.

8. For example, heres the drive re sized using disport.

9. when you have re sized the drive go back to the properties of the machine you have connected it to, and remove it.

10. OK.

11. Now power on the original VM and drive will be re sized.

Option 2 (Re size the Windows volume with GParted)

Note: This will work for a physical server as well.

1. Here’s our system drive with some nice shiny free space.

 

2. Make sure the server in question can boot from CD, in VMware do the following to boot to the machines BIOS, for a real server watch the screen as the server boots for instructions (Usually F10, F1 or Esc but differs depending on vendor).

3. Locate the boot order and make sure CD/DVD is at the top of the list.

4. Download GParted burn the image to CD, if you are working on a real server (use ImgBurn if your stuck). Or simply point the VM to the iso image, and boot the machine in question from it. At the welcome screen press Enter.

5. Use your arrow and tab keys to select Don’t touch the keymap > OK.

6. Pick a language.

7. We want to launch the GUI (X Windows), so select 0 (Zero).

8. Select Re size/Move > Drag the arrow to include the free space > Re size/Move.

9. Apply

10. Apply.

11. Close.

12. Click GParted > Quit.

13. Exit > Reboot/Shutdown > OK.

14. Remove the CD/ISO and press Enter.

15. The guest will run chkdsk the firs time it boots. This is normal don’t panic.

16. Once booted the volume will be re sized.

Shrink a Windows Partition with diskpart

1. To actually make the volume smaller with diskpart, the initial commands are the same.

2. If you use “shrink” on its own is will shrink the drive as much as it can (I cannot think of any situation where you would do this!). So to shrink the volume by 10 GB simply issue a “shrink minimum 10240”. (The figure in in MB).

 

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Original Article Written 24/01/11

vSphere – Guest VM is shown as (Orphaned)

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KB ID 0000414 

Problem

I’ve seen this happen a few times now, while looking at your Virtual infrastructure, one or more client machines is greyed out and shown as (Orphaned).

Solution

If you have many guests VM’s on one host with this problem, you can cure this by removing the parent host and re-adding it to the cluster, then right clicking it and select “Reconfigure for HA“.

Or you can do the following, on a machine by machine basis.

1. Right click the affected VM and select “Remove from Inventory” (nothing gets deleted don’t worry.)

2. Select one of your ESX hosts > Configuration > storage > Right click the storage that holds the virtual machine we are dealing with and select “Browse Datastore” > Locate the machines .vmx file > Right click > Add to inventory > Follow the instructions.

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For VMware View machines click here