Virtualize a Current Physical 2012 R2 Essentials Box

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I have inherited a 2012 R2 Server that is running on bare metal on a single RAID 5 array, however for some reason they didn't allocate about a TB of the space. For some reason they never actually configured the Essentials role either, which the client wants to use for O365 integration but I am concerned with flipping it on since the server has been running for a few years and I don't know what else has been configured out of the ordinary.

We do have full image backups so the thought is to use Microsoft's VM conversion tool to create a VM of the current state and store the VM on their Synology NAS, then blow away the RAID array and start over likely with a RAID1/RAID 1 config since it's just file storage/AD/DNS/DHCP for ~20 people. Most apps are cloud based. Then once the hardware is configured install server 2012 R2 w/ Hyper-V role then move the VM from the NAS back to the server and run it as a VM.

After the VM is running we will enable the Essentials role and see what blows up. Anybody know of anything to look out for on this?

Next year we plan to upgrade to Server 2016 Essentials so we will just spin up a new VM and do a migration.

Does this all sound doable, or anything I am missing? I have never moved a DC from Physical to Virtual, however have built many DC's as VM's to start, is there any unforeseen issues there?

Thanks for any feed back on this.

 

[freedomit]

A few years ago just before London 2012 Olympics I did a P2V of an SBS2003 Server. The hardware had become unstable and stability for them during the games was critical. So I purchased a new HP server with Server 2012 and virtualised the SBS box, once the games were over I did a full migration to SBS2011. (Yes I know this breaks OEM licensing but it was only for a few weeks).

Anyway, from memory I basically turned off all services & exchange etc, ran the P2V tool from Microsoft to create a VHD, copied over and tried to boot. At first it failed but I used a program called TestDisk to fix the boot error and then it booted perfectly and ran without any issues for about a month in total before being decommissioned.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've done a lot of P2Vs of servers...SBS03 and up mostly...even one Server 2000 box. Usually use the Microsoft tool, have also used Datto appliances.

It's not recommended...but there are ways to minimize what can go wrong.
*If there are multiple DCs..things are more complicated. Guessing you're just single DC here..so, that issue won't happen. But...you can guess what the issue stems from with multiple DCs (replication happening after that part is cloned, and acknowledgement between the two servers of that replication)
*Tokens expiring and being exchanged between workstations and the DC. The larger the network, the greater this chance. Can minimize this by shutting down workstations, or..if a managed switch...killing those ports, for the period of the P2V. If one token gets stale....simply unjoin the domain and rejoin the domain. Rarely happens but it can.

I like to shut down as many services as I can..DHCP, DNS, SQL stuff, server service, a couple of more that I can't remember but you can quickly look up in the various guides out there. (like if SBS..>Exchange).

Adjust disk sizes much later if you can, after the dust settles.
Also remove old vendor software like drivers, RAID tools, NIC tools, system drivers, etc.