Conducting hot P2V migrations with VMware Converter

Conducting hot P2V migrations with VMware Converter

Preparation is the key to help prevent physical-to-virtual, or P2V, migration failures with VMware Converter. In this tip, I'll give you step-by-step instructions on how to prepare your server for a hot clone. (Most of these steps can be skipped with cold clones, as the server's OS is not running during the conversion.)

In a previous installment of this series, we talked about

What VMware Converter will do, hot cloning (which is when you make a P2V migration while the server is still online) vs. cold cloning (which is when you migrate after the server is offline), and which servers you should probably stay away from when using VMware Converter.

Below are the steps you should take to prepare your server for conversion.

1. Install the Converter application on the server being migrated. If you are using the Enterprise version you can do this remotely, but my preference is to install Converter direcly on to the server a potential complication caused by introducing another PC in the conversion process. If you have many machines to convert this is not always practical. The Converter application consists of two parts, the Agent component (Windows service) and the Manager component (front end GUI). If you are running this on the server directly you need both components. Otherwise if you are running it remotely only the Agent component is needed.
2. Once you install the application on the server a reboot will be required if the server OS is Windows NT 4.0 or 2000. This is because a special driver is installed for the cloning process on those OS's, Windows XP and 2003 utilize the Volume Shadow Copy service instead. Also, it's best to use a local administrator account when logging into the server to install the application.
3. The following Windows services must be running for Converter to work properly: Workstation, Server, TCP/IP Netbios Helper and Volume Shadow Copy (Windows XP/2003, can be set to manual, just not disabled). Also, disable Windows Simple File Sharing if your source server is running Windows XP.
4. Make sure the VMware Converter Windows service is running.
5. Ensure you have at least 200 MB free on your source server's C drive. Mirrored or striped volumes across multiple disks should be broken; hardware RAID is OK since it is transparent to the operating system. Converter sometimes has issues converting dynamic disks, if you experience problems with them, then cold clone instead.
6. Disable any antivirus software running on the source server.
7. Shutdown any applications that are not needed on the server.
8. Run chkdsk and defragment your source server's hard disks.
9. Clean-up any temporary and unnecessary files on the source server. The less data that needs to be copied the better. This only applies when utilizing file level cloning (more on that later).
10. Keep users off the server while cloning. Disable remote desktop and any shares if possible.
11. Ensure required TCP/UDP ports are opened between the source server and VirtualCenter (VC) and VMware ESX. Even if you select VirtualCenter as your destination, the ports still need to be opened to the ESX server you choose. The source server first contacts VC to create the VM and then ESX to transfer the data to. Required ports are 443 and 902 (source to ESX/VC) and 445 and 139 (converter to source and source to Workstation/Server). These ports need to be opened on both OS firewalls and any network firewalls sitting between your source and destination servers.
12. Ensure your network adapter speed/duplex matches your physical switch setting. This can have a dramatic effect on your conversion speed. When cold cloning it's best to set your physical switch port to Auto/Auto since this is what the Windows PE ISO will default to.
13. If importing a VM or physical image the Windows version of the server running Converter must be equal to or greater then the source. So, if your source is Windows 2003, the server running Converter cannot be Windows 2000.
14. For cold cloning, the minimum memory requirements is 264 MB (will not work with less then this amount), the recommended memory is 364 MB. Converter also utilizes a RAM disk if you have at least 296 MB of memory available.

Making the conversion
With these steps complete, we're ready to get started. Start the Converter Manager application and click the Import Machine button to start the Converter Wizard. Select your Source server, in this example we will choose Physical Computer. Select This Local Machine if running Converter on the source server, otherwise enter the hostname/IP and login information of the server to be converted. At the Source Data screen you have the option to select your disk volumes and re-size then larger or smaller if needed. Make sure you do not select any small utility partitions created by your hardware installation. What you decide here will determine which disk cloning method is used to copy your source data. If you do not change your drive sizes or increase them, then a block-level clone will be performed. If you decrease the size of your drives by any amount then a file-level clone will be performed instead.

When a block-level clone is performed, data is transferred from the source server disk to the destination server disk block-by-block. This method is faster but results in more data being copied (even empty disk blocks are copied). When a file-level clone is performed, data is instead transferred file-by-file, which is slower but results in less data being copied. So if you only have 5 GB of data on a 40 GB drive, then only the 5 GB is copied. It's a trade-off between the two methods between faster transfer speed versus reduced data size which often results in about the same time to copy the data. One potential caveat with the file-level copy is if you have a server with a huge amount of small files, it can take days to copy the data, and will sometimes fail. I experienced a server with 200,000+ 2 K files in one directory which brought the conversion to a crawl. Once I removed these files it completed in a few hours.

Next choose your destination server which is typically VirtualCenter (VC)/ESX. If you have a VC server managing a destination ESX server, it is best to choose the VC server first. Continue entering a VM name, host and datastore; at the Networks screen you can select one or more NIC's and networks to connect to.

My preference is to first connect the VM to an Internal Only vSwitch so it is isolated from the source server and I can power it on while the source server is still up. Once I verify that the newly created VM is functioning properly and I go through the post-clone procedures, I shutdown the source server and move the VM to the same network that the source server was on.

Finally select whether or not to install VMware Tools, enter any OS customization if necessary, select whether or not to power on the VM right after the conversion completes and click the Finish button to start the conversion process. Once the conversion starts you can monitor the progress in the task progress window.

In our final part to this series we will discuss troubleshooting failed conversions and post-conversion procedures.

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What is VDI

What's new with virtual desktop infrastructure?

One of the major applications of virtualization is not just server consolidation but also end-user virtual machines. VMware View is the virtual desktop brokering and provisioning system in VMware's data center virtualization platform, vSphere. This series will cover the basics of the virtual desktop product, including installation, security and application virtualization features.

Virtual desktops: An introduction
Before I go any further, I would like to outline my experience and some caveats.

First, I've been working in the area of thin-client computing since the mid-1990s. Before I got into virtualization and VMware, I was a Citrix-certified instructor working initially with Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 on Windows NT4 Terminal Service Edition and more or less ending with Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 on Windows 2003. Before VMware came along and eclipsed my Citrix work, my main product was Citrix.

Second, I don't believe in panaceas. There are things I still really love about the Citrix Product range, and indeed I still continue to use a Citrix Presentation Server to connect to my remote lab environment, which is held in co-location in the U.K. So my message is this: Fully research the advantages and disadvantages of allthe remote desktop and application delivery options now available. When I started, if you wanted to deliver a desktop or application to a user down the wire, there was only one way to do it -- Citrix. Now we are bombarded daily with complimentary and competing solutions, including, for example:

·VMware Virtual Desktop View

·VMware ThinApp

·Citrix XenDesktop

·Citrix Provisioning Server

·Microsoft V-App

·Sun Virtual Desktop Connector (VDC)

·HP Client Virtual Software (CVS)

·ThinPrint

·UniPrint

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is essentially the same as Terminal Services (TS) or Citrix XenApp (formerly MetaFrame/Presentation server). That is to say you provide a desktop to the user via a "thin" protocol. The difference between server-based computing and virtual desktops is rather than having many users connected to one shared TS or Citrix Desktop -- users connect to their own personal desktop. The advantages of VDI are many, but its key advantages beyond the benefits of "thin-client computing" generally lie in remedying some of the limitations presented by the shared desktop approach of TS and Citrix XenApp.

Advantages of virtual desktops

·One user's activity does not affect the performance of other users. Each user is limited to the resources within their VM.

·Applications install natively to the Windows environment. There is no need for complicated installation routines and validation to make applications work in an environment for which they were never actually designed.

·Desktop hardening -- the process of bolting down the desktop whilst desirable in VDI is not mandatory. In Terminal Services and Citrix XenApp, you absolutely must bolt down the desktop to stop one user affecting the stability of the environment for other users using the shared desktop.

·VDI allows you to leverage your corporate license agreement with Microsoft at no additional charge, whereas each Citrix XenApp end-user connection requires a license from Citrix. Microsoft has gone so far as to introduce a specific licensing model currently called the VECD (Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop) program to promote the use of Windows as the operating system in the virtual desktop. It's by no means mandatory that you must use Windows as the guest operating system in a VDI project. You could use a Linux desktop distribution if you prefer it or your needs require it. This said few VDI environments run with just the virtualization layer and Windows XP on its own. Nine times out of ten there will be some type of "VDI Broker" server -- which will need licensing too!

·VDI can be coupled with other application virtualization tools such as Microsoft's V-App or VMware's ThinApp to reduce the footprint of the virtual desktop (because less is installed to Windows) and also allow for advanced features such as being able to run many different versions of the same application (flavors of Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat, for instance) on the same virtual desktop.

·Unique Features such as VMware View's "Offline Desktop," which allows an end user to take a copy of the virtual desktop from the ESX host and make it available on the PC/laptop even when they are not connected to the corporate network. Offline Desktop uses "deltas" to make sure only changes are synchronized back to the server copy of the VM, and a TTL value which allows for the offline desktop to work only for a limited period.

·View3 introduced View Composer to enable a "linked clone" feature. This allows for one single master VM from which many virtual desktops can be created (the linked clone). These linked clones contain only the changes the user makes during the virtual desktop session and as such massively reduce the disk space required to run virtual desktops.

Disadvantages of virtual desktops

·Printing is a huge challenge in the world of thin-client computing. By far the biggest challenge is the amount of bandwidth used to send a print job from the remote data center back to the end-user's physical printer. It's quite common to see Microsoft PowerPoint print jobs balloon in size to hundreds of megabytes. Some thin-client vendors have their own solution using some kind of "universal" PCL printer drivers. Some organizations prefer to buy in a third-party printing solution such as ThinPrint or UniPrint. In View 3, VMware acquired a license for the core thin-print product which they call virtual printing. This licensed version of ThinPrint should be good enough to address most printing needs.

·The most common VDI protocol is still Microsoft RDP. RDP has been shown not to perform as well as Citrix ICA Protocol -- and to be especially weak in the realm of multimedia, Flash-based web-pages and graphical intensive applications such as computer-aided design. Microsoft, VMware and Citrix all have projects to improve the client protocols used to connect to Windows Vista and Windows 7.

·Storage is quite a significant penalty in VDI. However, with the advent of de-duplication technology from the storage vendors such as NetApp, and the introduction of a "Thin Provisioned" virtual disk in vSphere4 -- this becomes less significant. As I have already mentioned VMware had effectively created a kind of built-in de-duplication process with View Composer. If you combine thin-provision from your storage vendors with thin-provisioning from VMware together with the linked clones feature -- you are really doing your level best to reduce the disk foot print of virtual desktop environment.

How most VDI Systems Work
Despite the plethora of solutions that now crowd the virtual desktop space, as you might expect, they all work very much in the same way and offer very similar features. Most will have some kind of "broker" which acts as an intermediary between the end-user and the virtual desktop. The job of the broker is to provide a logon process after which the user can select their desktop -- and very often this connection will be based around a certificates-based SSL connection rather than relying on Microsoft RDP Security. This broker will also integrate with vCenter to allow you to create "pools" of desktops for different purposes -- a Sales Desktop Pool and an Accounts Desktop Pool for example. It will also integrate with Active Directory to allow you to allocate the right virtual desktop to the right people.

At the end-users' side they can either use a webpage to log in or a dedicated 32-bit client. Frequently, the full client will offer a higher level of features to the end user than an ActiveX or Java client can provide. There will normally be some kind of "agent" installed to the virtual desktop which allows the user to connect to the virtual machine (VM). Frequently, this agent will support advanced features such as two-factor authentication with technologies such as RSA's Secure ID and the ability to redirect encrypted USB drive connections to/from the virtual desktop to the end-user machine. This allows the user to log in with very high security and, for example, still use a USB based printer sat on their desk.

For "Dilbert" or call center-style users, you might even want to go so far as replacing the physical desktop PC with a thin client sometimes referred to as a "dumb" terminal -- I've often wondered why they aren't called Smart Terminals! -- which merely offers a screen, keyboard and mouse interface to the virtual desktop. There are many, many of these devices available. It's well worth asking the OEM vendor for samples of their devices so you can test them against your VDI environment -- because they vary massively in quality, reliability and functionality. To be brutally honest, they can be rubbish and downright PITA. Some popular vendors of smart terminals include:

·Wyse

·ChipPC

·Panologic

·NeoWare (now acquired by HP)

·Sun Sunray

·OEMs -- All the major vendors, such as HP Dell, and HP, have some kind of thin-client device

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VMware Interview questions

VMware Interview questions

1.What is a Hypervisor?

It is a program that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host. Each operating system appears to have the host’s processor, memory, and other resources all to itself. However, the hypervisor is actually controlling the host processor and resources, allocating what is needed to each operating system in turn and making sure that the guest operating systems (called virtual machines) cannot disrupt each other.

2.What is a .vmdk file?

This isn’t the file containing the raw data. Instead it is the disk descriptor file which describes the size and geometry of the virtual disk file. This file is in text format and contains the name of the –flat.vmdk file for which it is associated with and also the hard drive adapter type, drive sectors, heads and cylinders, etc. One of these files will exist for each virtual hard drive that is assigned to your virtual machine. You can tell which –flat.vmdk file it is associated with by opening the file and looking at the Extent Description field.

3.What is VMware vMotion?

VMware VMotion enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another with zero downtime.

4. What is promiscuous mode in Vmware?

• Promiscuous mode is a security policy which can be defined at the virtual switch or portgroup level
• A virtual machine, Service Console or VMkernel network interface in a portgroup which allows use of promiscuous mode can see all network traffic traversing the virtual switch.
• If this mode is set to reject, the packets are sent to intended port so that the intended virtual machine will only be able to see the communication.
• Example: In case you are using a virtual xp inside any Windows VM. If promiscuous mode is set to reject then the virtual xp won’t be able to connect the network unless promiscuous mode is enabled for the Windows VM.

·         5. What is a snapshot?

·         A snapshot is a “point in time image” of a virtual guest operating system (VM). That snapshot contains an image of the VMs disk, RAM, and devices at the time the snapshot was taken. With the snapshot, you can return the VM to that point in time, whenever you choose. You can take snapshots of your VMs, no matter what guest OS you have and the snapshot functionality can be used for features like performing image level backups of the VMs without ever shutting them down.

 6. What is VDI?

• VDI stands for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure where end user physical machine like desktop or laptop are virtualized due to which VMware described VDI as “delivering desktops from the data center”.
• Once VDI is used the end user connect to their desktop using a device called thin client.
• The end user can also connect to their desktop using VMware Horizon View installed on any desktop or mobile devices

 7.what is VMware HA?

• VMware HA i.e. High Availability which works on the host level and is configured on the Cluster.
• A Cluster configured with HA will migrate and restart all the vms running under any of the host in case of any host-level failure automatically to another host under the same cluster.
• VMware HA continuously monitors all ESX Server hosts in a cluster and detects failures.
• VMware HA agent placed on each host maintains a heartbeat with the other hosts in the cluster using the service console network. Each server sends heartbeats to the others servers in the cluster at five-second intervals. If any servers lose heartbeat over three consecutive heartbeat intervals, VMware HA initiates the failover action of restarting all affected virtual machines on other hosts.
• You can set virtual machine restart priority in case of any host failure depending upon the critical nature of the vm.

NOTE: Using HA in case of any host failure with RESTART the vms on different host so the vms state will be interrupted and it is not a live migration

8. What is storage vMotion?

• Storage vMotion is similar to vMotion in the sense that “something” related to the VM is moved and there is no downtime to the VM guest and end users. However, with SVMotion the VM Guest stays on the server that it resides on but the virtual disk for that VM is what moves.
• With Storage vMotion, you can migrate a virtual machine and its disk files from one datastore to another while the virtual machine is running.
• You can choose to place the virtual machine and all its disks in a single location, or select separate locations for the virtual machine configuration file and each virtual disk.
• During a migration with Storage vMotion, you can transform virtual disks from Thick-Provisioned Lazy Zeroed or Thick-Provisioned Eager Zeroed to Thin-Provisioned or the reverse.
• Perform live migration of virtual machine disk files across any Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FCoE and NFS storage

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VMware Admin Interview Questions

VMware Admin Interview Questions & Answers.

1. VMWare Kernel is a Proprietary Kenral and is not based on any of the UNIX operating systems, it's a kernel developed by VMWare Company. 

2. The VMKernel can't boot it by itself, so that it takes the help of the 3rd party operating system. In VMWare case the kernel is booted by RedHat Linux operating system which is known as service console. 

3. The service console is developed based up on Redhat Linux Operating system, it is used to manage the VMKernel  

4. To restart webaccess service on vmware
service vmware-webaccess restart – this will restart apache tomcat app 

5. To restart ssh service on vmware
service sshd restart 

6. To restart host agent(vmware-hostd) on vmware esx server
service mgmt-vmware restart 

7. Path for the struts-config.xml
/usr/lib/vmware/webAccess/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.17/webapps/ui/WEB-INF/ 

8. To start the scripted install the command is
    esx ks=nfs:111.222.333.444:/data/KS.config ksdevice=eth0
               location                                             device name

9. Virtual Network in Simple……………….

Virtual Nic(s) on Virtual Machine(s) -----> 

Physical Nic on the ESX Server (Virtual Switch - 56 Ports)  ----->

Physical Switch Port Should be trunked with all the VLANS to which the VM's need access  

All the ESX servers should be configured with Same number of Physical Nics (vSwitches) and Connectivity also should be same, So that vMotion succeeds
All the Virtual Machines are connected to one vSwitch with Different VLANS, this means the Physical Nic(vSwitch) needs to be trunked with the same VLANS on the Physical Switch Port

10 What are the three port groups present in ESX server networking
   1. Virtual Machine Port Group - Used for Virtual Machine Network
   2. Service Console Port Group - Used for Service Console Communications
   3. VMKernel Port Group - Used for VMotion, iSCSI, NFS Communications

11. What is the use of a Port Group?
The port group segregates the type of communication.

12. What are the type of communications which requires an IP address for sure ?
   Service Console and VMKernel (VMotion and iSCSI), these communications does not happen without an ip address (Whether it is a single or dedicated)

13. In the ESX Server licensing features VMotion License is showing as Not used, why?
    Even though the license box is selected, it shows as "License Not Used" until, you enable the VMotion option for specific vSwitch

 14. How the Virtual Machineort group communication works ? 

     All the vm's which are configured in VM Port Group are able to connect to the physical machines on the network. So this port group enables communication between vSwitch and Physical Switch to connect vm's to Physical Machine's

15. What is a VLAN ?
     A VLAN is a logical configuration on the switch port to segment the IP Traffic. For this to happen, the port must be trunked with the correct VLAN ID.

16. Does the vSwitches support VLAN Tagging? Why?
     Yes, The vSwitches support VLAN Tagging, otherwise if the virtual machines in an esx host are connected to different VLANS, we need to install a separate physical nic (vSwitch) for every VLAN. That is the reason vmware included the VLANtagging for vSwitches. So every vSwitch supports upto 1016 ports, and BTW they can support 1016 VLANS if needed, but an ESX server doesn’t support that many VM’s. :)  

17. What is Promiscuous Mode on vSwitch ? What happens if it sets to Accept?
     If the promiscuous mode set to Accept, all the communication is visible to all the virtual machines, in other words all the packets are sent to all the ports on vSwitch
     If the promiscuous mode set to Reject, the packets are sent to inteded port, so that the intended virtual machine was able to see the communication.

18. What is MAC address Changes ? What happens if it is set to Accept ?
When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow incoming traffic to the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the incoming traffic will be allowed to the VM.

19. What is Forged Transmits ? What happens if it is set to Accept ?
When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow outgoing traffic from the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the outgoing traffic will be allowed from the VM.

20. What are the core services of VC ?
VM provisioning , Task Scheduling and Event Logging

21. Can we do vMotion between two datacenters ? If possible how it will be?
Yes we can do vMotion between two datacenters, but the mandatory requirement is the VM should be powered off.

22. What is VC agent? and what service it is corresponded to? What are the minimum req's for VC agent installation ?
VC agent is an agent installed on ESX server which enables communication between VC and ESX server.
The daemon  associated with it is called vmware-hostd , and the service which corresponds to it is called as mgmt-vmware, in the event of VC agent failure just restart the service by typing the following command at the service console       

     " service mgmt-vmware restart " 
VC agent installed on the ESX server when we add it to the VC, so at the time of installtion if you are getting an error like " VC Agent service failed to install ", check the /Opt size whether it is sufficient or not.

23. How can you edit VI Client Settings and VC Server Settings ?
Click Edit Menu on VC and Select Client Settings to change VI settings
Click Administration Menu on VC and Select VC Management Server Configuration to Change VC Settings

24. What are the files that make a Virtual Machine  ?
     .vmx - Virtual Machine Configuration File
     .nvram - Virtual Machine BIOS
     .vmdk - Virtual Machine Disk file
     .vswp - Virtual Machine Swap File
     .vmsd - Virtual MAchine Snapshot Database
     .vmsn - Virtual Machine Snapshot file
     .vmss - Virtual Machine Suspended State file
     .vmware.log - Current Log File
     .vmware-#.log - Old Log file

25. What are the devices that can be added while the virtual Machine running
In VI 3.5 we can add Hard Disk and NIC's while the machine running.

In vSphere 4.0 we can add Memory and Processor along with HDD and NIC's while the machine running 

26. How to set the time delay for BIOS screen for a Virtual Machine?
Right Click on VM, select edit settings, choose options tab and select boot option, set the delay how much you want.

27. What is a template ?
We can convert a VM into Template, and it cannot be powered on once its changed to template. This is used to quick provisioning of VM's.

23. What to do to customize the windows virtual machine clone,?
copy the sysprep files to Virtual center directory on the server, so that the wizard will take the advantage of it.

24. What to do to customize the linux/unix virtual machine clone,?
VC itself includes the customization tools, as these operating systems are available as open source.

25. Does cloning from template happens between two datacenters ?
Yes.. it can, if the template in one datacenter, we can deploy the vm from that template in another datacenter without any problem.

26. What are the common issues with snapshots? What stops from taking a snapshot and how to fix it ?
If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's, then the snapshot failed. If it is mapped as virtual then we can take a snapshot of it.
If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's as physical, you need to remove it to take a snapshot.

27. What are the settings that are taken into to consideration when we initiate a snapshot ?
Virtual Machine Configuration (What hardware is attached to it)
State of the Virtual Machine Hard Disk file ( To revert back if needed)
State of the Virtual Machine Memory (if it is powered on)

28. What are the requirements for Converting a Physical machine to VM ?
An agent needs to be installed on the Physical machine
VI client needs to be installed with Converter Plug-in
A server to import/export virtual machines

29. What is VMWare consolidated backup ?
It is a backup framework, that supports 3rd party utilities to take backups of ESX servers and Virtual Machines. Its not a backup service.

30. To open the guided consolidation tool, what are the user requirements ?
The user must be member of administrator, The user should have "Logon as service" privileges - To give a user these privileges,open local sec policy, select Logon as service policy and add the user the user should have read access to AD to send queries

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How to boot a Windows VM into Safe Mode in ESX

How to boot a Windows VM into Safe Mode in ESX

Information:

1)      Right Click the VM

2)      Select Edit Settings

a.       Click Options

b.      Select Boot Options

c.       Set the Power-on Boot Delay to 5000ms (5 seconds)

d.      Now the VM will display the BIOS VMWare bios screen for 5 seconds, giving you enough time to click the VM and press F8

3)      Open the console window for the VM. Start the boot process.

4)      Click the console with the mouse to gain focus.

5)      Wait until the VMWare boot screen appears. 

6)      Before the counter reaches 0:00 press the F8 key and don't let up until the Windows Advanced Options Menu appears which will allow selecting the Safe Mode or other options.

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Converting A VMware Image To A Physical Machine

Converting A VMware Image To A Physical Machine

This tutorial shows how to convert an existing CentOS VM to a Physical machine. This tutorial covers the cloning of the VM to an unpartitioned HDD and troubleshoot some of the possible errors that you may have booting the OS on your new hardware. To illustrate this procedure I will use VMware Workstation 7 as the handler to transfer the VM installation to a physical HDD.

1 Requirements
To perform this procedure you will need:
• VMware Workstation, VMware Server or VMware Player.
• CloneZilla ISO image.
• Unpartitioned HDD with enough space to hold your VM image.

2 Preliminary Notes
This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of the cloning process and requires no previous experience on the use of Clonezilla. Make sure your OS is not using in any way the target HDD that will hold your final copy of the VM, otherwise VMware will complain about your disk been in use and CloneZilla will not perform a successful copy of the VM.

3 VMware Configuration
First thing is to make sure your virtual CD/DVD is using your CloneZilla ISO image to boot. Next add your physical HDD as part of your existing VM by clicking the Add button.


Select Hard Drive and click Next.


Select Use physical disk (for advanced users) then click Next.


Make sure you select the correct drive that you want to use for your physical disk and select the option Use entire disk.


Finally give a name to your configuration file then click Finish.


Make sure your final VMware hardware list include this two elements otherwise, start all over.


4 CloneZilla Cloning Process

Start your VMware and boot from your virtual ISO into CloneZilla image. Use the Live option with default settings.


Select your preferred language and continue.


Accept the default option Don't touch keymap and continue.


Select Start_clonezilla and continue.


Select device-device option and continue.


Select Beginner mode and continue.


Select disk to local disk and continue.


Select your source disk and click OK.


Select your target disk and click OK, then press Enter to continue.


You will be presented with a warning, about your existing data on your target disk will be lost, make sure there's nothing usable on your disk before you continue.


You will be presented with a series of questions answer yes to all this prompts.


The cloning process may take a long time.

After the cloning process is finished hit Enter and power off the VM by pressing 0 on the CloneZilla menu.


The cloning process is complete, is now time to install your new HDD to your physical machine.

5 Troubleshooting Physical Machine

More likely your first encounter with your cloned OS will be a filesystem corruption, with the following error: Unexpected Inconsistency. To fix this problem enter your root password and run fsck -y to start the filesystem repair process. The -y answers yes to the questions the fsck command will probably output.


Your next challenge will be fixing your NIC, I have used two different methods to fix this problem.
Go into /etc/udev/rules.d and delete the file 70-persistent-net.rules then reboot. Deleting the file forces the detection process to run again at boot with no baggage left over from the cloning process.

The other way to fix this problem is by edit: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and add the MAC address of your new NIC.
Open eth0 using vi, type:

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Edit the following line:
HWADDR=
This is my sample config file:
# Micro-Star INT'L CO Gigabit Ethernet Controller
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
DHCPCLASS=
HWADDR=00:19:B1:2A:BA:B8
IPADDR=10.10.11.50
NETMASK=255.255.255.192
ONBOOT=yes

Save and close the file then reboot the server:

reboot

The system is now ready to be used.

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