Migrating to VMM 2008 from VMM 2007

  • Article

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008

This topic provides step-by-step instructions for migrating from Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2007 to VMM 2008 while retaining your previous VMM data.

When you update the VMM database, the following data and objects are lost:

  • Jobs table

  • The passwords and product keys for the following:

    • Standalone templates

    • Operating system profiles

    • Hardware profiles

When you update the VMM database, the following data and objects are retained:

  • Self-Service information

  • Custom fields for virtual machines and hosts

Warning

To avoid the loss of important data, before you update the VMM database, it is highly recommended that you perform a full backup of the VMM database.

Note

When you install the VMM server for VMM 2008, all accounts in the local Administrators security group are automatically added to the VMM Administrator user role. When you migrate from VMM 2007 to VMM 2008, the VMM Administrator user accounts in the Virtual Machine Manager Administrators security group are not automatically migrated to the Local Administrators security group. If you want to add or remove user accounts from the VMM Administrator user role, see Role-Based Security in VMM.

To migrate from Virtual Machine Manager 2007 to VMM 2008

  1. In the VMM Administrator Console, remove all hosts that are on a perimeter network.

    Important

    You must remove these hosts before you upgrade the VMM 2008 Beta VMM database, and then add the hosts back after you have completed the migration to VMM 2008. You must also reconfigure the host reserves for these hosts after you have added them to VMM 2008.

  2. In SQL Server Management Studio, do the following to create a backup copy of the VMM 2007 database:

    1. Expand Databases, right-click the VirtualManagerDB database, point to Tasks, and then click Back Up.

    2. In the Back Up Database dialog box, click OK to back up the database to the default location, or in the Destination area, specify a different location for the backup file, and then click OK.

      Note

      Make note of the location of the backup file because you will use it later to restore a new database on your VMM 2008 database computer.

  3. Identify a computer that meets the minimum system requirements for installing the VMM database for VMM 2008. For more information, see System Requirements: VMM Database.

  4. On the computer that will be your VMM 2008 database server, do the following:

    1. Manually install SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 or another supported version of SQL Server. You can use any valid SQL Server instance name or use the default instance name for VMM, which is MICROSOFT$VMM$. For more information about supported versions of SQL Server, see System Requirements: VMM Database.

      You can install SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 from the VMM product media by running SQLEXPR_ENU.exe from within the appropriate language folder (1033 for English) under the Prerequisites\SQLEXPR path. Or, to download SQL Server 2005 Express, go to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=95583, and to download SQL Server 2005 Express SP 2, go to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123890.

    2. Install SQL Server Management Studio or SQL Server Management Studio Express. To download SQL Server Management Studio Express, go to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123889.

    3. Transfer the backup file created from your VMM 2007 database to your VMM 2008 database server, or to a location that is accessible to your VMM 2008 database server.

    4. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server 2005, right-click SQL Server Management Studio Express, and then click Run as administrator.

    5. In SQL Server Management Studio, right-click Databases, and then click New Database.

    6. In the New Database dialog box, type a name for the new database, such as VMM2008, and then click OK. The default name for the VMM database is VirtualManagerDB.

    7. Expand Databases, right-click the database that you just created, point to Tasks, point to Restore, and then click Database.

    8. In the Restore Database dialog box, in the Source for restore area, click From device, and then click the button to the right of the box.

    9. In the Specify Backup dialog box, click Add, and then browse to the location of the backup file of your VMM 2007 database.

    10. In the Select the backup sets to restore list, select the Restore check box in the column next to the specified backup file.

    11. In the Select a page pane on the left, click Options, and then do the following:

      1. In the Restore options area, select the Override the existing database check box.

      2. In the Restore the database files as area, the file locations for the data file (VirtualManagerDB.mdf) and the log file (VirtualManagerDB_log.ldf) will appear in the Restore As column as their original locations on the VMM 2007 database computer.

        To restore the files to the correct location on the VMM 2008 database server, click the button to the right of each file, and then in the Locate Database Files dialog box, browse to the location where you want to store the database files.

        The default path for SQL Server database files is %Program Files (x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data. Name each file the same as it was originally named, VirtualManagerDB.mdf for the data file and VirtualManagerDB_log.ldf for the log file.

      3. After you have specified the location for restoring the database files, click OK to restore the database.

  5. Identify a computer that is separate from your current VMM installation and that meets the minimum system requirements for installing the VMM server for VMM 2008. For more information, see System Requirements: VMM Server.

    Important

    If you are using an SQL Server 2005 database instance, you must have the 32-bit version of the SQL Server 2005 tools installed on this computer.

    If you are using and SQL Server 2008 database instance, you must have the SQL Server 2008 tools and the 32-bit version of the SQL Server 2005 tools installed on this computer.

  6. Install the VMM server for VMM 2008 and, on the SQL Server Settings page of the wizard, manually enter the server name and the SQL Server instance name, and then in the Select or enter a database list, select or type the name of the restored copy of the VMM 2007 database. For more information, see Managing User Roles.

    You will be prompted with a message saying that the specified database is VMM 2007 database. Click OK to automatically upgrade it a VMM 2008 database.

    Important

    If you are using a remote instance of SQL Server for the VMM database, for important configuration information, see Configuring a Remote Instance of SQL Server for VMM.

  7. Follow the instructions for installing the VMM Administrator Console, and then connect it to the new VMM server. For more information, see Installing the VMM Administrator Console.

  8. In the VMM Administrator Console, in Administration view, click Managed Computers.

    In the results pane, the VMM 2007 VMM server, which is also the default library server for the VMM 2007 installation, will have an agent communication status of Access Denied, as will any other hosts that are being managed by VMM 2007.

  9. In the results pane, do the following:

    1. Select the VMM 2007 VMM server, which is also the default library server for the VMM 2007 installation, click Remove, and then, in the Remove Agent dialog box, leave the All roles check box selected, and then click OK.

      Important

      Do not attempt to reassociate or update the agent on the VMM 2007 VMM server before removing it.

    2. If there are additional hosts, select one or more hosts, with an agent communication status of Access Denied, and then click Reassociate.

      Note

      So that performance is not adversely affected, it is recommended that you update hosts in batches of 10 to 25, first associating the hosts with the VMM 2008 server, and then updating the agents on the hosts, until all the hosts have been updated to VMM 2008.

      The hosts will now have an agent communication status of Not Responding and an agent version status of Unsupported.

    3. Select one or more hosts with an agent version status of Unsupported, and then click Update Agent.

      After the update is complete, the hosts will have an agent communication status of Responding and an agent version status of Up-to-date. This indicates that the upgrade for the agents on the hosts is complete.

    4. Repeat the preceding steps until all hosts have been updated.

  10. In the VMM Administrator Console, in Library view, do the following:

    • In the Resources pane, click a library server, and then, in the Actions pane, click Refresh.

    • If you have more than one library server, repeat the refresh step for each library server.

  11. In the VMM Administrator Console, in Administration view, do the following:

    • In the results pane, select one or more computers that have a role of Library and an agent communication status of Access Denied, and then, in the Actions pane, click Reassociate.

      The library servers will have an agent communication status of Not Responding and an agent version status of Unsupported.

    • Select one or more computers that have a Library role and an agent version status of Unsupported, and then click Update Agent.

      After the update is complete, the library servers will have an agent communication status of Responding and an agent version status of Up-to-date. This indicates that the upgrade for the agents on the library servers is complete.

At this point, you can use VMM 2008 to manage the former VMM 2007 hosts running the Virtual Server virtualization software. However, those hosts will not have the features that are available on hosts that are running the Hyper-V virtualization software, including but not limited to support for:

  • Multiple processors on guest virtual machines.

  • 64-bit guest virtual machines.

  • Up to 64 GB of memory for guest virtual machines.

  • Virtual networks with VLAN capability.

  • Quick migration for highly available virtual machines.

Optionally, you might want to migrate the virtual machines on the hosts running the Virtual Server virtualization software to virtual machines on hosts running the Hyper-V virtualization software. For more information about migrating virtual machines, see How to Migrate a Virtual Machine.

See Also

Concepts

Migrating to VMM 2008