I know this isn't strictly about Unraid but someone might know....

 

Is it possible to clone a "real" machine's hard drive and then mount the clone as a virtual machine in esxi?

 

My situation is this.... I have my main windows 7 machine that is running that I can't afford to mess up as it is my main work computer. I need to play around with some professional software (industrial process machinery interface software) which interacts with various other bits of software I have installed but as I said if something doesn't work right I can't risk it screwing up my work tower.

 

Just image your system in its current state;  then install the program you want to test =>and if anything goes wrong, simply restore the image.

 

Any good imaging utility will do that.  I like (and use) Image for DOS; but Acronis is a more "user friendly" interface ... in fact it even has a "Try & Decide" function that takes a snapshot of your current state; and can restore it to that exact state if you decide you don't want the software.

 

Note that if you have multiple PCs you may want to get a 3-install "Family Pack" -- a single install version is $40, the 3-install version is $80.

 

You should, of course, ALWAYS have a good image of your OS anyway => so if that's not the case, this is certainly a good time to start !!

Yeah I already use true image. I was thinking of making a copy of my machine and leaving it as a vm. The main reason is I get ALOT of software from different oem manufacturers, some software works fantastic and gets to stay on the machine, others not so much. When it doesn't work it's a real pain to roll back.

VMware used to be able to read Acronis images and import them as a VM, but that capability no longer exists with the latest version of ESXi and Acronis.

 

If you have ESXi (I gather you do) I'd just build a new Windows 7 VM from scratch, and then use it as your "test" platform.    Does ESXi support the superb "Snapshot" feature that VMware Workstation has?    I use Workstation on my main system to do what you're outlining, and the Snapshots are superb.    Rolling back to a recent snapshot takes well under a minute !!

 

You can use vCenter Converter Standalone to convert a Physical to Virtual.  You will have to reactivate the new VM, which you won't be able to do if you are using a pre-installed OEM license.

Sorry if I'm being simple but do you mean I have to use a new retail licence for each windows 7 VM? If that's the case, that's not a problem.

 

 

Where do you find vcenter converter? Can't seem to find it on the VMware site.

 

 

 

He's saying that if the machine you try to clone is using an OEM Windows license, that converting it to a VM will break the activation, as there is a change of 'hardware'.  Sounds like it's not a problem though, and you have access to a retail license to reactivate with.

 

Converter is here:  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_converter_standalone/5_1

Sorry if I'm being simple but do you mean I have to use a new retail licence for each windows 7 VM? If that's the case, that's not a problem.

 

If licenses aren't an issue, you'll get a better (i.e. "cleaner") install if you simply create a new VM and install Windows 7.

 

Yeah I already use true image. I was thinking of making a copy of my machine and leaving it as a vm.

What I'm about to suggest works great in virtualbox, don't know about esxi.

 

1. Make full backup with acronis of the machine you want.

2. Create blank VM with appropriate settings. (disk size, ram, etc.)

3. Set VM to boot from acronis emergency media

4. Restore full backup to VM

5. Boot VM and address license and activation issues

 

I know it's multiple steps instead of creating the VM directly from the backup, but it accomplishes the same thing with probably no extra work.

Garycase. I see where your coming from. But I need to make sure any new software will work with existing stuff, some of which I don't have copies of so a clean install wouldn't do me much good. I am going to do a clean install as a separate vm but I really do need all my existing software.

 

Betaquasi. Is that download free? I went to the site and clicked buy now and it took me to a page that had a load of different programs but no converter.

 

Johnathanm. Actually that might be just what I need. I will give it a go tomorrow. And post back.

The Acronis backup/restore definitely WORKED with earlier versions of Acronis and ESXi, but I've been told that is no longer the case.    If your version works okay, that's a very simple way to move a copy to a VM.

 

If the virtualization doesn't work out, there's a very simple way to do this using Boot-It BM.    You could simply have two identical copies of your OS (on the same hard drive) and choose which to boot to ["primary" or "experimental"].    VERY simple to set up;  and fully isolated from each other.  But try the virtual approach first.

 

Does ESXi support the superb "Snapshot" feature that VMware Workstation has?

Yes.  Snapshots are possible with ESXi.  But you cannot be using passthrough on any hardware to get it - just ESXi virtual hardware.  So no snapshots of unRAID VM's with hdd controllers passed through - for instance.

That's good to know bobpheonix, could be a useful tool. I have a free pss from the wife to get busy with the esxi box tonight so I will be trying allsorts to get it working. I'll get back to y'all on how I fare.