Skip to main content

Converting A VMware Image To A Physical Machine

1 Requirements

To perform this procedure you will need:
  • VMware Workstation, VMware Server or VMware Player.
  • CloneZilla ISO image.
  • Unpartitioned HDD with enough space to hold your VM image.

2 Preliminary Notes

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of the cloning process and requires no previous experience on the use of Clonezilla. Make sure your OS is not using in any way the target HDD that will hold your final copy of the VM, otherwise VMware will complain about your disk been in use and CloneZilla will not perform a successful copy of the VM.

3 VMware Configuration

First thing is to make sure your virtual CD/DVD is using your CloneZilla ISO image to boot. Next add your physical HDD as part of your existing VM by clicking the Add button.



Select Hard Drive and click Next.

Select Use physical disk (for advanced users) then click Next.

Make sure you select the correct drive that you want to use for your physical disk and select the option Use entire disk.

Finally give a name to your configuration file then click Finish.

Make sure your final VMware hardware list include this two elements otherwise, start all over.



4 CloneZilla Cloning Process

Start your VMware and boot from your virtual ISO into CloneZilla image. Use the Live option with default settings.

Select your preferred language and continue.

Accept the default option Don't touch keymap and continue.

Select Stat_clonezilla and continue.

Select device-device option and continue.

Select Beginner mode and continue.

Select disk to local disk and continue.

Select your source disk and click OK.

Select your target disk and click OK, then press Enter to continue.

You will be presented with a warning, about your existing data on your target disk will be lost, make sure there's nothing usable on your disk before you continue.

You will be presented with a series of questions answer yes to all this prompts.

The cloning process may take a long time.

After the cloning process is finished hit Enter and power off the VM by pressing 0 on the CloneZilla menu.

The cloning process is complete, is now time to install your new HDD to your physical machine.

5 Troubleshooting Physical Machine

More likely your first encounter with your cloned OS will be a filesystem corruption, with the following error: Unexpected Inconsistency. To fix this problem enter your root password and run fsck -y to start the filesystem repair process. The -y answers yes to the questions the fsck command will probably output.

Your next challenge will be fixing your NIC, I have used two different methods to fix this problem.
Go into /etc/udev/rules.d and delete the file 70-persistent-net.rules then reboot. Deleting the file forces the detection process to run again at boot with no baggage left over from the cloning process.
The other way to fix this problem is by edit: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and add the MAC address of your new NIC.
Open eth0 using vi, type:
vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Edit the following line:
HWADDR=
This is my sample config file:
# Micro-Star INT'L CO Gigabit Ethernet Controller
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
DHCPCLASS=
HWADDR=00:19:B1:2A:BA:B8
IPADDR=10.10.11.50
NETMASK=255.255.255.192
ONBOOT=yes
Save and close the file then reboot the server:
reboot
The system is now ready to be used.

6 Links

CloneZilla: http://clonezilla.org/


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu

One of the most irritating things about Windows is the context menu clutter that you have to deal with once you install a bunch of applications. It seems like every application is fighting for a piece of your context menu, and it’s not like you even use half of them. Today we’ll explain where these menu items are hiding in your registry, how to disable them the geeky way, and an easier cleanup method for non-geeks as well. Either way, your context menu won’t look like this one anymore… Cleaning the Context Menu by Hacking the Registry If you want to clean things up the truly geeky way, you can open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to one of the following keys… sadly the context menu items are not stored in a single location. Most of the menu items that used for all files and folders can be found by looking at one of these keys: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers HKEY_CLASSES_...
Post a Comment
Read more

Create a Restore Point for Windows 7 or Vista’s System Restore

If you are thinking of installing an application but aren’t quite sure what it’s going to do to your computer, I would absolutely recommend creating a restore point before you install that application, and here are the steps to do so. Note that most application installs automatically create a restore point, but you can do this if you are really worried. Open up the Start Menu and right-click on “Computer”, and then select “Properties”. This will take you into the System area of Control Panel. Click on the “System Protection” link on the left hand side. Now select the “System Protection” tab to get to the System Restore section. Click the “Create” button to create a new restore point. You’ll be prompted for a name, and you might want to give it a useful name that you’ll be able to easily identify later. Click the Create button, and then the system will create the restore point. When it’s all finished, you’ll get a message saying it’s completed successf...
Post a Comment
Read more

Linuxfx 10 : A Windows-Like Linux Distro

The idea of Linuxfx is to make it easier for people who are migrating from Windows 7. People who are dissatisfied with the lack of security and stability of Windows 10 are also fit for Linuxfx. LinuxFX Desktop : Apart from Windows-like looks, Linuxfx also has more to offer which a regular user will definitely admire. So, let’s get along with me to know more about Windows alternative Linuxfx. As usual, I started by downloading the ISO image of Linuxfx from the official site  here . Then, instead of dual-booting, I decided to install it on my VirtualBox to play safely. After finishing the basic configuration, as soon as I booted it, I noticed a Windows logo and system integrity check. That’s quite surprising because every Linux distro puts their own or OEM logo on that place. But I think Linuxfx wants to make migrating users feel like home from the beginning. Entering the boot menu, Linuxfx redirected and logged in to a live session. Whoah! it can also detect the system I’m using — a...
Post a Comment
Read more