Moving Virtual Machines in ESXi from older hardware to new server.

If you have outgrown you current ESXi hardware and need to move to another physical machine and you don’t have vSphere you can still easily move all your VMs to the new server. Without additional software costs.

First install the ESXi Host software on the machine and configure it for access via the management console.

Take note of the IP address and credentials you used for you new installation.

Then login to your existing VMware installation via your management computer/console. And you can then do one of the following.

Simple way?

Use the outstanding free product(s) by VEEAM!
Veeam Backup Free Edition. The free version that will let you backup, replicate/move and restore entire machines from one ESX server to another on the same subnet. The free version limits the backup/migrate tasks to one machine at a time but it works! If you have a VMware environment I highly recommend their product(s) for backup and disaster recovery. You can automate just about everything you need for backing up and restoration. Check out more here http://www.veeam.com .

Older not so quick but still simple old fashioned way.

Open the management console. Connect to the original server/Host. Navigate to the Server (vCenter) containing the VMs you wish to move.
Commit any snapshots in the VM you are going to move.
Power off the VM.
Click the Configuration tab.
Click Storage.
Open/Browser to the Datastore where the VMs are located and find the folder containing the entire Virtual Machine (the one with the disks (vmdk), .vmx file, nvram, .log files etc.).
Copy that entire machine to a drive (a folder on the management station or other attached/network available storage)

Connect to the new host via the management console.
Open the Datastore where you wish to place your new machine(s)
Upload (import) the entire folder – containing the Virtual Machine, you previously copied/downloaded.
Then open the that new folder and right-click on the .vmx file and select ‘Add to Inventory’.
It will then show up in the list of machines in your selected Server/Cluster. Then power off all the old machines and shut down that Host.

When you power on the machines on the new Host you will be walked through a process that will ask you if the machine was copied or cloned. Since you are moving the VM choose that –  move and NOT clone or it will generate a new machine ID/SID and jack up the VMs usability.

Do that for any and all that you moved and test connectivity from workstations.

I’ve done this with virtualized Domain Controllers, SQL servers and even an Exchange server!

That’s it.

Peace out.

Moving Outlook files and Settings to New computer and error (0x8004010F) : ‘Outlook data file cannot be accessed

So after setting up new PC I’ve been going through some things that might help some others.

I needed to transfer my Outlook profile to my new machine. AND I didn’t want to have to create all my connection settings over again. Yes I know I could just copy over my .pst file over to the new machine and then re-create all my accounts and point them to that .pst file. But I have a lot of accounts with unusual configurations (on the advanced connections tab) and I didn’t want to hassle with that for each and everyone of my accounts. [ I have 5 POP3 Gmail accounts I keep separated for various reasons and another 6 personal domain accounts]
So to move my Outlook file and settings I did the ‘usual’.

First, obviously, I installed MS Office (2010) on the new PC. [BUT do not launch the program yet!] I then copied over my Current Outlook folder Located here:

Win 7 and Win Vista  (drive):\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows XP (drive):\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

to a ‘temporary’ folder on the new PC.

I will then copy that folder to the new proper location after I import the Profile settings, as described below. First I exported the old settings and them copied them over to the new machine and imported them.

To export the profile settings (registry) from my original machine:
In Microsoft Outlook you can easily export some types of information to a file. However, there is no option to export your profile e.g. when you want to have the same settings on another computer and you do not want to manually put all of them together with the account details again. In order to do so, you can use the Windows Registry Editor that gives access to all the information.

  • Click Start
  • In the search field type Regedit and hit Enter
  • Expand the following registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles.
  • You will see a list of your profiles.
  • Right click on the profile that you want to copy and click Export

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  1. Then, you can specify the name of the registry file and the location to save it e.g. Desktop.
  2. Now, you need to copy the file to another computer and double click it there and choose to ‘add the information to registry’
  3. Confirm that you want to make changes to the registry.
  4. Now launch Outlook on the new machine and you will most likely get an error saying the .pst file was not found. NO big deal yet. OK/Close your way through the next few windows to EXIT the application. Here we’re only trying to create the default folder/location.
  5. Now copy the contents of the old Outlook folder from where every you had it temporarily to the new Outlook location. (path should be close to the same as above.)
  6. Now run your Outlook, the new profile will be opened (if you have only one) or you will be prompted to choose one of profiles (if you have more than one). And it ‘should’ work. At the minimum you should see all of your old mail, folders, contacts and calendars.

However I had some errors. Specifically:

Receiving reported error (0x8004010F) : ‘Outlook data file cannot be accessed.’
Sending reported error (0x8004010F) : ‘Outlook data file cannot be accessed.’

Arghh. So here is the fix that worked for me. Seems that the ‘Folder Location’ for the deliver of email was not properly ‘pathed’. Here is how to fix that.

Changing the folder to specify inbox fixed the issue. Apparently the inbox did not get set and the higher level file name was selected.

1. From Outlook 2010 click File>Account Settings>Account Settings (if you have more that one account you will have to do this for each one – just highlight/select them)

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2. Click Change Folder (Down on the lower left corner)

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3. Click the + to the left of the folder name to expand the subfolders. Click on ‘New Folder’ and create a new ‘temp’ folder; call it 01 or what ever, and select it. Click OK then you should now see a Folder location in the ‘Change Folder button on the lower left.

4. Now let’s go back Click on Change Folder and now Select the ‘Inbox’ instead of that ‘01’ folder and click OK. The change should now ‘stick’ for you. Click Inbox.
Click OK.

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5. Close Account Settings and click send/receive. And you should be good to go.

It’s an obvious bug that the settings won’t ‘stick’. But this works!

Hope that helps some. I’m sure I’ll be referring back to it.