KiwiGlen Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 After reading a few post and listening to the podcast I've been think about moving to using an SSD in my WS2012E box for the OS. The problem is the box is a Hyper-V guest on a WS2012 box and the main OS drive is a VHD. So does anybody have any ideas on how to convert my 2TB VHD (Dynamic Expanding currently using 55GB) to an SSD that is passed though to the Hyper-V guest? Without re installing everything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 This TechNet article describes some of the process, however, and you knew this was coming, I am wondering if you could stand up a second WHS 2011 server and install the connecter software to the first one. If so, you could restore the backup to a physical drive. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/7232e61d-3a3b-4025-957a-408c14845ca1/hyperv-and-guest-v2vv2p In other words, the first server (your current one) now becomes a client of server 2 and we know you can restore those backups to any media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiGlen Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Sounds interesting... Could I use the Server Backup to restore to a smaller drive? ps. you forgot to include the link... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 What size if you vhd file now? Personally, although Stustman (Joe_Miner) can show you how on a clean install, I'd stick with the recommended size of 160 or is it 120? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiGlen Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 (edited) Haven't bought the SSD yet, but was looking at some 120GB ones. Is that a problem? Should I got with 160GB? The vhd is about 60GB now. Edited July 7, 2013 by KiwiGlen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikon Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Sounds interesting... Could I use the Server Backup to restore to a smaller drive? ps. you forgot to include the link... Acronis True Image Home 2012 or later can do that. pcdoc is our local Acronis expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmwills Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 That would be true also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiGlen Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Yeah I had the same thought about Acronis, going to have a look into that tonight when I get home from work. I was wondering with an SSD being passed though to a Hyper-V guest will the AHCI setting in the BIOS be passed though? Don't I need that for TRIM to be supported on the SSD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jem101 Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 I have read this thread through a few times and I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. It sounds as if you have a Server 2012 box running the Hyper-V role, with a Server 2012 Essentials virtual machine on it, and what you want to know is can you install an SSD in the host machine and use it to host the virtual 'C' drive for the 2012Essentials VM. Or are you wanting to convert the virtualised 2012E installation to a separate physical machine with a SSD If I've read this right (and it is certainly possible that I've misunderstood completely) and it is the former of these two options then it is actually quite simple. Shut down the virtual machine Install the SSD in to the host server, start it up and make sure that the host can see it properly. From within the host server, copy the VHD file corresponding to the 2012E 'C' drive onto the new SSD drive Create a new virtual machine and when setting it up, rather than create a new VHD file, point it at the file you just copied. Start up the new VM and it should be your 2012 Essentials virtual machine only it will be a bit faster as it will be running from a SSD. When you are happy that all is working ok, delete the old virtual machine and the old VHD file on the old location. If you do pass an SSD drive (or any other drive for that matter) through to a hyper-v guest then the guest has no knowledge of any AHCI settings or anything else, the whole idea is called 'hardware abstraction', the guest VMs know nothing about and are isolated from the physical hardware, they only know that some storage is available which they can use. Anything to do with controlling the hardware is the responsibility of the host machine only. Sorry if I've got completely got the wrong end of the stick John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiGlen Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Yes I am trying to use the SSD as a host drive for a virtual WS2012E box. Why create a new virtual machine? Why not just point the virtual machine to the newly copied VHD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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