Question : Converting DNS /DHCP / Print Server using Virtual Machine Manager, Hyper V?

I was attempting to use Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to convert a server to a VM.  The server in question is my network DNS, DHCP, Print and Accounting Server.  Prerequisites check was all good.

The physical host server is a PowerEdge Single CPU unit (Xeon 2.00GHZ, Windows Server Standard 2007 with sp2), with 2 other VM’s running on it currently.  Avg CPU is 6% and 3% on those VM’s, memory set to 1GB on one of them, and 4GB on the other.  The server itself has 16GB of ram.  The newly attempted VM was created with 4GB ram and the CPU is indicated as (2) 1.00GHZ Pentium III Xeon.  I did notice the other 2 VM’s that are correctly working are configured with (1) 1.00GHZ Pentium III Xeon (instead of 2).    

I performed an “offline conversion” as recommended by VMM.  The Physical to Virtual Conversion failed at 49%, with error (2944):  VMM is unable to complete the requested operation because the server name “hyperVserver.mydomain.com”  (my real domain name was there of course) could not be resolved.  This makes sense as it was the DNS server I was converting, I assume?

There was also another error on the VMM server console, “Refresh Virtual Machine Properties”  indicating:  Error (2927), A hardware management error has occurred trying to contact server “hyperVserver.mydomain.com”  Unknown error (0x803381b9).

On the actual Hyper V server, I deleted the VM that failed, and the hardware management error above went away.  The original 2 VM's that are on this host are running perfectly.  One of them was a conversion as well.

I deleted the newly created VM and powered the original physical server on again, and I’m back up and running…but I’d like to get this server onto a VM soon…

Tips appreciated.

Answer : Converting DNS /DHCP / Print Server using Virtual Machine Manager, Hyper V?

or

You can use "DISK2VHD" as it will convert your DNS,DHCP,Print,Accounting server while it is online into a VHD, which you can then fire up in a VM and start testing / converting via SCVMM if you want to.

but if it is just ONE Server or even two or three, I would use Disk2VHD to convert it to a vhd

connect a USB Disk (suitable size for conversion) and then save the VHD over there.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx