Last time I tried to migrate my oldest server over to a Hyper V, I was less than successful. That attempt used an Acronis application to create a virtual image which I tried to run under an earlier version of Hyper V. Any number of issues popped up and I had to quickly back out of the plans to retire the system.
This time I discovered the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager has a “physical to virtual” conversion tool. I installed it and within no-time it was migrating my server. All I had to do is point to the server’s URL (it’s not a member of the domain) and let the setup wizard create (yet another) instance of SQL Server Express. Yes, it would let me use an existing SS instance but there were too many warnings and other issues—it was just easier to lay down another Express instance. Several hours later it had built and launched the new Hyper V Virtual system keeping all of the settings—including the IP address (which seemed strange) as now there were two systems on the network with that IP address.
I changed the IP address (hard-coded) and changed the router to point to it. That was it. The conversion worked flawlessly. I powered off the old server—I could almost hear it “sigh” as it shut down for the last time. It’s been up for almost 12 years non-stop. I patted it on the head and said “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”
