VE for Hyper-V and Physical Machines
I am preparing to create a 2008 Hyper-V R2 server with 3 VMs. The project is a migration of 3 physical servers (1 2003 Server, 1 2003 Server R2, and 1 Win7). I am looking at Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Virtual Edition for Hyper-V as the solution, and the literature states that it can convert a backup of a physical server into a VM. But, it's not real clear on how the backup of the physical server gets created.
My question is, can I create the backups of the physical servers above, restore them into Hyper-V VMs, and continue to back the VMs up all with the single purchase of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Virtual Edition for Hyper-V?
The literature suggests that Agents can be installed which will do this, but I want to make sure that after purchasing ABR/Hyper-V I don't then have to turn around and buy ABR 11.5 Advanced Workstation/Server for Windows just to create the initial backups.
Any clarifications would be appreciated.
TIA
Thank you for the quick reply.
Though, you're answer presents somewhat of a problem. The two 2003 Server machine require 24 hour availability, so scheduling a period of time for them to be offline while in the bootable media environment would be problematic. Are there any options for obtaining the initial image of the physical servers while maintaining their availability?
Technically you can install Agent for Windows and Management Console on each of physical machines using the same license key and backup them live. More elegant solution from other points of view is to obtain trial license (iirc it's limited to 5 machines, but I can't find a proof now), that is fully functional except creating backups from bootable media, and do the same.
That's good information. Thanks!
To image the servers while maintaining their availability, Agents need to be installed. The Agents will require 2 more licenses (the cheapest one is Server for Windows).
If you opt for Agents, the further options are:
1) No downtime, possible data loss. On each server, create a full backup with conversion to a Hyper-V machine (Agent for Hyper-V must be already installed, it will do the conversion). Once you are sure that the created VM is ok, put it in the production network and turn off the original machine. Any data change that occurred between starting the backup and turning off the physical machine will be absent in the VM.
2) No data loss, little downtime. Create a full backup with conversion, but do not turn on the new VM. Reboot the physical server and do an incremental backup offline (it takes much less time). Recover this incremental backup to the same VM and put the VM in the production network. The VM will have the same data as the original server had when going offline.
Update (considering dev-anon's post above): if you decommission the physical servers, you may use the licenses for backing up other Windows machines.
Thank you for the followup, elenal! Much appreciated.