Last year when I did my first SBS 2008 migration, I wrote a post lamenting the incompatibility of DVD media that needs to be run on 5 (now 6) year old server hardware that only had a CD drive. I alluded to an even bigger issue in virtualized installations, the need to use floppy disks for The Answer File. The issue cropped up again recently, and since I have to remember the way I solve the problem each time I encounter it, I thought I would post the basics here so the next time...
The Problem (Its always a hardware thing, even when the hardware is virtual.)
SBS 2008 installation in migration mode requires an answer file created on the source (old) server to correctly setup the destination (new) server. Neither server has a physcal floppy drive. On the shiny new server this is not a problem because SBS 2008 will run in a virtual host, and the hypervisor, Hyper-V in this case, is capable of creating and using Virtual Floppy Disks. The VFD are .vfd files on the host platform.
I can copy a .vfd file to the source server, but I need a way to mount the file as a VFD on the source server so that I can save The Answer File to the virtual floppy. Windows 2003 does not have a native Microsoft way of doing this that I am aware of.
A Solution (One that has worked a few times.)
I have used a program named VM Back to mount VFD in Windows environments. This program allows one to mount a vdf file such as one created by Hyper-V or even to just create the VFD on the fly.
I use this program to create a VFD with the answer file on the source server. Then I transfer the transfer the VFD (.vfd file) to the Hyper-V server where I can use it in a virtual host to perform a SBS 2008 migration installation.
An Alternative (That I just tested ... once)
Hyper-V is not the only hypervisor on the market, so I wondered how this might work in other virtualized environments.
VMWare workstation can also use .vfd files. When I tried it I noticed that .vfd does not seem to be "native", but I was able to find the file and mount it. I do not think the answer file must br created on the source server if you know the information required.
Thanks, John.
I don't know why SBS cannot just read from a hard disk or a CD. I tried both of these first.
BTW, to get VMware to see floppy as native, just change extension from .vfd to .flp.
I credit you with your tips here and add bit more at my blog entry.
You don't need to create the answer file on the source server. You can run the tool from any computer to create the file. It is just an XML file.
THANK YOU!
i'm an intern @ this company and they gave me a asignement for this period, i may do the migration of the server here. so instead of doing this directly, i wanted to test it first virtually. but then the stupid answerfilething came up, no problems at first but then after installing SBS2008 no migration window or anything popped up. looking at the problem i figured out it was the not-being-able-to-see-USB-problem on virtuals. but thank you for your solution, it really saved me a lot of time figuring this out.