Question : Use BESR to move physical server to VMWare virtual machine and upgrade from 2003 to 2008

OK, this may be a bit much for one question. I have 2 old servers running Windows 2003 Standard 32 bit. I need to decomission these physical boxes and move the servers to VMs (just bought a new server and installed VMWare ESX 4). I also have Backup Exec System Recovery and am familiar with the product and restoring to another phisical box but have never done so to a VM.

So the question is can someone provide as much detail as possible - a walkthrough would be nice - to A) Move the existing servers to a VMs using Bacup Exec System Recovery (if that's the best way to do it) and B) then upgrade it from Server 2003 to Server 2008 Standard 64 bit.

One last thing - I know it would probably be easier to upgrade the old server to 2008 before moving it but the existing hardware will not support 2008.

Thanks.

Answer : Use BESR to move physical server to VMWare virtual machine and upgrade from 2003 to 2008

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