Elastic Cloud Virtual Machine Import (migration of server data from other hosting providers to our company)

Scope of application and reasons: .vhd is the virtual disk used by Hyper-V virtual machines. Using a VHD file to import into our Elastic Cloud can completely import data, avoiding the trouble of redeploying the environment and website. If environment deployment is cumbersome and the data volume is large, you can consider this method.

If you have a VHD file, you can directly refer to the virtual machine import section. If you do not have a VHD, please extract the VHD first.

Note: The system disk (default 30G for our Elastic Cloud) and data disk of the new server must both not be smaller than those of the old server; otherwise, import cannot be performed.

For transferring from our Elastic Cloud to Elastic Cloud, refer to:

Elastic Cloud Host uses cloud images to clone new hosts and migrate data [Cloud Image]

I. Extract the VHD file.

Windows system   It is recommended to download virtio-win-0.1-74.iso to the server's C drive for backup, to facilitate driver installation (do not put it on the D drive, otherwise it cannot be read)

1. You need to prepare two VHD files first: system and data. For example, the system disk is C.vhd and the data disk is D.vhd.

Log in to the server and download http://downinfo.myhostadmin.net/disk2vhd.exe. After running it, first select only the system disk, choose the storage path, name the file c.vhd, and then click the Create button to start creating.

Note: The disk where the VHD is stored must have at least half of its capacity free to avoid insufficient space. The example server in this article has a small amount of data, enough to store on the C drive, so in the example it is stored on the desktop.

After completion, select the data disk, choose the storage path, name it d.vhd, and then click the Create button to start creating.

If your original server uses one hard disk but is divided into multiple partitions, this import process is very complicated. It is recommended to consider directly using the traditional method of compressing, packaging, and migrating data. If you must use the whole-disk migration method, please consult: 028-62778877 ext. 7 for solutions and charging standards.

II. Import the virtual machine.

1. Log in to our management center, Business Management -- Server Management -- Manage -- System Management -- Virtual Machine Import. After enabling this function, the system will automatically create an FTP account and password.

2. Log in to the server, use FTP software on the server to connect to the enabled FTP, and upload the VHD file to the virtual machine import space.

3. After the upload is complete, import the VHD disk.

Note: The system disk and data disk must each be larger than those of the old server. If they are smaller than the old server, please upgrade the disks before proceeding.

4. Click "Load Driver Disk" to install drivers. For Windows2003 system, the three drivers for network adapter, SCSI hard disk, and PCI must all be installed; none can be omitted.

5. Please first read the driver installation instructions in detail, then click the [Console] button. Please note that according to the prompts, install the network adapter driver, SCSI driver, and PCI driver first. The operating system must match the driver directory; if the driver is installed incorrectly, it will cause a blue screen. The directory security boundary corresponding to the driver

【Special Attention】The operating system must match the driver directory. If the driver is installed incorrectly, it will cause a blue screen. Therefore, when installing disk drivers, you must specify the specific search directory. For [Ethernet driver], Windows2003 corresponds to the XP directory, Windows2008-R2 corresponds to the Win7 directory, Windows2008 corresponds to the Vista directory, Windows2012 corresponds to the WIN8 directory. For [SCSI or PCI driver], Windows2003 corresponds to the WNET directory, Windows2008 corresponds to the WLH directory, Windows2012 corresponds to the WIN8 directory.

 6. After the drivers are installed, configure the network adapters. Note that the network adapter named Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter is the public network adapter and should be configured with the public IP address; the other one is the private network adapter. The IP address information is in step 6 of the virtual machine import.

7. Restarting the server may require loading the SCSI driver again. Choose automatic acquisition. If unsuccessful, specify the c:\windows\system32\drivers directory to install it. Then assign a drive letter to the data disk, and restart the system once more.

After completing the above steps, the VHD has been successfully imported. A few points to note:

1.The server password and management password are the originalsystem password.

2.When installing drivers, first install the network adapter,SCSIhard disk,PCI the order cannot be changed, and the driver directory must not be wrong; otherwise, it may cause a system blue screen and you will need to re-import theVHD.

3. The new server's system disk must be larger than that of the old server.