Welcome to my guide “Tips For Converting Physical Servers To Virtual XenServers” In this guide I will list all the things you need to check when virtualizing physiacl servers to xenservers.  There are many things that if you dont do it will impact your systems performance.  I have virtualized over 150 servers / desktop PCs so I have picked up a few tips for you This guide will assume you are virtulizing windows (Any version)

-First thing to do is to run a chkdsk on all hard drives local to the server.  This way we will know the system is free from file coruption.  If you convert a corupted system it might not be bootable when you start it on the xenserver

-Make sure noone is using / accessing the server.  This will make sure that there are no locks on the files when the convert is running.

-Install the latest citrix xenconvert tool, Available from the citrix website under the downloads section.

-Stop windows services. Stop as many services as you can.  This again will help there to be less locks on files.

-Enable Automount. Before you run the convert go to the command prompt and type in  diskpart   then  automount enable   this will enable automounting of new drives (Next step)

-Lets say your system has 2 hard-drives, C drive and a D Drive, when you run the convert the tool it will create 2 virtual drives on E: anf F:  You need to make sure that there are no other drives (USB, CD-ROM and so on) using the next available drive letters or the convert will fail.  The convert is not smart enough to detect USB, CD-ROMS.

-Run the convert from the console of the machine.  Most of the time I use RDP, But if you read the official citrix xenconvert guide it says to run the convert tool from the console.

-When the convert has completed connect to the xenserver using xencenter. Now click on the machine we have just virtualized and click on the network tab.  Now remove any network connections in there.  We dont want the xenserver to load this networking driver when it first boots up.

-Now allocate how much memory and no of processors
you want your system to have.  Power on the virtual machine

-log on to the server using either a local user account or a domain account you have used on this server recently (Windows should of cached the login + password)  If you get any prompts to install drivers press cancel.  If you press next and go through the wizard you might not be able to load the xen drivers later. So make sure you press cancel.

-Uninstall any unwanted software from the virtual server.  Uninstall “Citrix Convert Tool”
Also With my HP and IBM servers we install special HP and IBM software which monitors the server and also includes a few tools, UNINSTALL THEM NOW.  If I dont uninstall these tools they will use 20%-50% of my CPU on the virtual server.  So make sure you uninstall the software and then reboot your system.

-When you log on again you will get prompted to search for drivers, Again press CANCEL.  We now need to install the xentools on this server.  By installing these tools it will help the perofrmance of your system and will also enable you to easily monitor this server.  To install the tools select “XS-TOOLS” under the CD-ROM.  An install window should now pop up on your screen, If it doesnt manually browse to the CD-ROM and right click > Autorun.  Follow the prompts. Reboot

-If you got an error about copy.vbs while installing the tools this is not good,  When you logged on to the server and got a prompt to search for drivers did you click cancel?? If you did search for drivers this is why you are getting this error. I would recommend you run the convert tool again on the physical server and start again. You need the install to run without errors.  Go into device manager and right click on any unknown devices and click uninstall.  Are there any SCSI devices in there, if there are uninstall them as well then run the xen tools install again, You might get lucky