Server VM Migration Advice Needed

aubryscully · February 3, 2018

Hey guys, thanks in advance for the help. I've been tasked with solving an IT problem at work and I wanted to get another opinion on if I'm missing something.

At one location there is a main server and a voicemail server. The main server is a custom built (by me) machine running on WIndows 10 Pro that's only job is to record the data from some IP cameras via Windows' built in FTP server functionality. The voicemail server is a cheap prebuilt Dell tower running on Windows 7 that is running a software suite that is part of the company's phone system and it records all voicemails and all calls. The current issue is that the voicemail server only has a 250GB HDD in it which fills up unbelievably fast. I thought about grabbing a secondary HDD to put in it but the software won't allow voicemails to be recorded to anything other than the C drive.

My idea was to purchase a 1TB SSD (which I did) and to use Macrium Reflect to duplicate the current drive's contents to the new SSD and then to just swap them out. I've done this on many machines in the past and have never had issues so I'm confident that this will work. The only drawback is that the voicemail server will still be hosted on a consumer grade prebuilt Dell tower with components that aren't exactly known for great reliability.

This brings me to my new idea. The server I have running at that location has been rock solid and is IMO much more trustworthy than the Dell box, so I would love to find a way to run the voicemail server off of the main box. I can't simply install the voicemail software suite onto the main box as its configuration is incredibly complicated and there are other complications with that approach. Ditching Windows 10 and only running Windows 7 off of the box is also out of the question due to potential driver issues along with other reasons.

This leaves me with the option of running both OSs simultaneously. I would love to accomplish this by running the Windows 7 (voicemail) instance as a VM through Hyper-V within Windows 10 Pro. Is there any reason why I couldn't just make a VHD file of the Windows7 box using a utility like Disk2VHD and then create a VM on the Windows 10 box running from that VHD file? Is there any better way I should go about this, or should I just keep it simple and do a drive swap on the Dell box and call it a day? Thanks

brwainer · February 3, 2018

Hyper-V on non-Server Windows is meant for developer/workstation use, it isn't meant for production. I'm not aware of anything specifically missing or different from Hyper-V on a Server SKU, but I wouldn't recommend it. What is the hardware in the main server, and do you really think that it is reliable enough to basically double the risk when it does have an issue? With two machines versus one you are more likely to experience some issue with one of them, but that issue will only affect the one workload. Either way, I hope you have good backups, of the kind that can do "bare metal" recovery (complete image of the whole OS).

Personally I would keep the machines seperate and move the voicemail server onto the SSD you purchased, and then take a good look at my backup and recovery strategy.

aubryscully · February 3, 2018

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

Hyper-V on non-Server Windows is meant for developer/workstation use, it isn't meant for production. I'm not aware of anything specifically missing or different from Hyper-V on a Server SKU, but I wouldn't recommend it. What is the hardware in the main server, and do you really think that it is reliable enough to basically double the risk when it does have an issue? With two machines versus one you are more likely to experience some issue with one of them, but that issue will only affect the one workload. Either way, I hope you have good backups, of the kind that can do "bare metal" recovery (complete image of the whole OS).

Personally I would keep the machines seperate and move the voicemail server onto the SSD you purchased, and then take a good look at my backup and recovery strategy.

The main server isn't comprised of anything super special as it was built on a fairly limited budget. i5 6500, nice Asus mobo, EVGA G2 650 PSU, 850 EVO boot drive, RAID 1 1TB drives for stored footage. All ran off a UPS.

After thinking more and more about the situation, I agree that it will be nice to not have both machines down at once if there is ever a problem in the future. I will proceed with the original plan of just swapping out the drive. Thanks for the input!