Possible to virtualize Win2000 server?

[drjones]

We're installing a new server for a client. They currently run legacy software on a Win2000 box.

They are moving to a whole new cloud-based software to replace what is running on this old server, but want to be able to have access to the data stored within it, if possible.

Has anyone had any luck virtualizing a Win2K machine and running it on Server 2012 as a guest? My techs aren't sure that we can, so our backup plan is to see if we can install the software fresh onto a new 2003 virtual and migrate the data over.

Technically we *could* just keep the 2000 box alive & running as-is, but obviously virtuals are way easier to backup & manage, especially with how old its hardware is already...

And as I'm typing this I realized that no, I didn't take note of the type/manufacturer of legacy software....

 

[Markverhyden]

ESXi claims they support W2K SP4. If you can get your hands on Fusion 5.0 is supports W2K as well. Virtual PC does not though

 

[JustInspired]

VirtualBox says it does. Nice free option...

 

[silvano]

Anyone doing this on Hyper-v 3? It's a temporary solution, and not sure how to handle the p2v or if it will work on Server 2012r2 hyper-v role.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Mixed results.
Some options....

Disk2VHD won't work locally, but you can use the older version of ESXi's Converter tool...version 4. I don't believe version 5 will work. If you want to stick it in Hyper-V you'll then need a conversion tool like Stars to convert the VMDK to a VHD. I'm guessing this old server has RAID so taking the disks to another computer with XP or 2K3 or newer and then running Disk2VHD won't do the trick for ya. But if it's plain IDE drives...you can do that.

Depending on the bare metal hardware it was on, doing a conversion may end up with blue screens due to HDD controllers, so you could do the "Run NTBackup on the old server"...and then do a fresh install of Server 2000 into Hyper-V, and then restore the backup.

Have not done it on Server 2012 Hyper-V...I doubt those Integration tools would work on 2K.

Storage Craft and/or Datto would be another option...run a full backup, do an export to VHD. StorageCraft supports Windows 2000.

People have run DOS and Win3 in Hyper-V for proof of concept.

 

[drjones]

Mixed results.
Some options....

Disk2VHD won't work locally, but you can use the older version of ESXi's Converter tool...version 4. I don't believe version 5 will work. If you want to stick it in Hyper-V you'll then need a conversion tool like Stars to convert the VMDK to a VHD. I'm guessing this old server has RAID so taking the disks to another computer with XP or 2K3 or newer and then running Disk2VHD won't do the trick for ya. But if it's plain IDE drives...you can do that.

Depending on the bare metal hardware it was on, doing a conversion may end up with blue screens due to HDD controllers, so you could do the "Run NTBackup on the old server"...and then do a fresh install of Server 2000 into Hyper-V, and then restore the backup.

Have not done it on Server 2012 Hyper-V...I doubt those Integration tools would work on 2K.

Storage Craft and/or Datto would be another option...run a full backup, do an export to VHD. StorageCraft supports Windows 2000.

People have run DOS and Win3 in Hyper-V for proof of concept.

Well what luck...we are selling them a Datto!

Then how would we run the VM on the new server though?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Well what luck...we are selling them a Datto!

Then how would we run the VM on the new server though?

Dattos units can export it in VHD or VMDK format (whichever you choose). Simply copy that file into your hypervisor...and perform the standard steps of creating a new guest out of an existing VHD or VMDK.

As I type this....I'm installing a Datto unit at an old client of ours, out of their 4 servers 1 of them is a Server 2000 box. Storage Craft is installing on that right now.

It's a client with a very low budget, a non profit, we're actually donating this Datto unit and just charging them cost for this. We are also going to be donating them some servers that we retired from other clients of ours, and I'll be using the Datto to swing over their servers into a hypervisor.

But for now, I'm just happy to have great backup for them.

 

[drjones]

Cool....as always, thank you StoneCat!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

FYI, my Datto install worked fine for the Server 2000 box the other day and my first bootup screenshot verification came in fine this morning.

 

[drjones]

FYI, my Datto install worked fine for the Server 2000 box the other day and my first bootup screenshot verification came in fine this morning.

Great to know...thank you again for the update!

Definitely puts me at ease for this upcoming project....

 

[drjones]

So we did a backup of the 2000 box with the Datto but when we boot it we get a BSOD that the graphics driver failed to initialize....

Any ideas??

 

[Markverhyden]

So we did a backup of the 2000 box with the Datto but when we boot it we get a BSOD that the graphics driver failed to initialize....

Any ideas??

I know your problem may seem obvious to you but it is a little short on details. Boot what? Where? How?

 

[drjones]

Sorry, when we export the Win2000 VM file from the datto and try to run it as a guest in HyperV / Server 2012, we get the BSOD with "video driver failed to initialize" error.

We have tried booting the Win 2000 image directly on the Datto and get the same error from the VM.

We just tried uninstalling the graphics driver on the physical win2000 server, to try to get it to load a default/generic graphics driver, and now the physical win2000 server will not boot either.

Help!

 

[Markverhyden]

How did you make the P2V image? Can you boot the old machine in safe mode?

 

[drjones]

How did you make the P2V image? Can you boot the old machine in safe mode?

Made it with the Datto - cannot boot either the virtual, nor the physical into safe mode nor last known good config.

 

[Markverhyden]

Made it with the Datto - cannot boot either the virtual, nor the physical into safe mode nor last known good config.

Did you make a normal backup and test it before you started? Do you have the W2K server OS disk to boot from and try to run CLI utilities?

 

[drjones]

Did you make a normal backup and test it before you started? Do you have the W2K server OS disk to boot from and try to run CLI utilities?

We're working on getting a 2000 disk....the datto backup we took of the server is solid; we can browse all the data no problem.

I purchased another used PCI Graphics card & installed that (verified it will work with 2000) but that didn't work.

Tried VGA only mode in the boot settings, didn't work either.

Any other ideas?

 

[Markverhyden]

What I was referring to is using something like clonzilla to make an image and then test restore that image to another HD to make sure it boots properly. Personally I always verify that status and if the EU does not care make sure they understand the risks.

 

[drjones]

What I was referring to is using something like clonzilla to make an image and then test restore that image to another HD to make sure it boots properly. Personally I always verify that status and if the EU does not care make sure they understand the risks.

Ah, that's what the Datto does - takes live, bootable images. We verified they were successful....well, at least that we could browse the data, if not boot the image due to the BSOD/video issue.

 

[Markverhyden]

Ah, that's what the Datto does - takes live, bootable images. We verified they were successful....well, at least that we could browse the data, if not boot the image due to the BSOD/video issue.

It's the verification part that is important. Can't tell you the number of times I've had situations where the EU said that they had backup software running and never tested the entire process. Meaning running machine, backup, restore to a new disk, running (or not) machine.

Of course having the data is great. It's just that with a machine that old you can't predict how difficult a bare metal restore from the OS disk may be. Do they have the application disks and any keys needed, etc, etc.

Well this point it looks like you will need to get the OS disk to boot from and start trying with some of the built in OS recovery tools.