Q. What's the Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit?

A. The Virtual Server 2005 Migration Toolkit is a set of utilities and guidelines that let you migrate a physical server to a Microsoft Virtual Server 2005-based virtual machine (VM) environment. You can download the toolkit and related documentation at Microsoft download site. The migration process that the toolkit uses relies on the Automated Deployment Services (ADS) component of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; therefore, you need Windows 2003 Enterprise to use the toolkit.

You can use the toolkit to migrate physical servers that run any of the following OSs:

• Windows 2003 Enterprise and Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server Service Pack 4 (SP4) or later
• Windows 2000 Server SP4 or later
• Windows NT 4.0 Server with SP6a, Standard and Enterprise Editions

The toolkit works by providing custom ADS task sequences that capture the physical server's environment to an XML file, which is then used to create a virtual environment that mimics the physical box. ADS then captures the physical disks to an image file on the ADS server, and the image is deployed to the new virtual environment that was previously created. Although the capture process doesn't affect the actual physical server, the server is unavailable for a period of time while its physical disks are captured.

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