Create image file from physical windows server

SUSE Product Topics SLES Virtualization
1

Hi,

Running SLES11sp1_64 with Xen virtualization.

Besides using Platespin, is there an alternative way to create/migrate a
Windows server to an image file that I can import into my virtual
environment as I want to virtualize most of my Windows 2003/2008 servers.

Regards
John

2

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3

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Use the ‘dd’ command. Boot to a Linux LiveCD (windows just cannot
handle practical things like this) and do something like the following
(You’ll need a separate drive to which you can write the data; also note
that this is insanely slow):

dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/bigdrive/windows.raw bs=1048576

When done you may be able to use this file as an actual disk image or
you could boot into a new virtual machine with a LiveCD and restore it
by reversing the parameters.

There may be more-efficient uses of ‘dd’; Google would know.

Good luck.
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