@JaredBusch said:

Honestly, it sounds like you are trying to get around paying for a backup solution by setting up a bunch of components.

There is some truth in it. I just don't have the approval for the paid version yet. It is approved but not until September. Right now there is no backup solution in place for VMs and the files inside them. Which is why I am looking for something to buy time until I can get Veeam 9.

Are you trying to backup the Hypervisor itself? If so why? You typically jsut backup the guest VMs, not the Hypervisor itself. Because the Hypervisor can simply be rebuilt quickly and the guest VMs reattached to it.

No. Trying to backup the actual VHDX(VM) and files inside the VM. Agent will have to do for now. It will be a mess, but I need something inplace than nothingness.

So I have a VM (Server 2012 R2) running. I want to back it up so I can restore both baremetal & file level. Not sure how to approach this. I do have some gueses.

1. Install VeeamEndpoint on both hypervisor and inside VM. Hypervisor will backup VHDX while Veeam inside VM will backup files level.

2. Use other Veeam solution that may achieve both goal using the same setup/application. Not sure if Veeam Replication is the answer or not.

What I want to achieve here is the ability to DR VMs, while recover 'accidental' deleted files as well. Any idea?

@FATeknollogee

@FATeknollogee said:

Who is your preferred supplier & why?

Looking for desktop PCs in the price range of $350 - $700, for Task workers & entry level power users.

We use Dell. Depending on the quantity it might be cheaper to go with Dell.com (make sure to create an account to tract your order in the future). Dell.com has coupon that works very well for low quantity orders.
Also you need to provide more specs and qty to even get an answer that can relate to your situation.

@alex.olynyk

This might be able to help. https://forum.owncloud.org/viewtopic.php?t=15224
Sorry I have not messed with ownCloud enough to know what's going on

EDIT: Not even sure if Rollback is officially support or not :s

@scottalanmiller said:

@LAH3385 said:

Let's not get too technical.. My real question is the ability to expand/shrink on the fly/VM stay online. I know for a fact that Gen1 cannot do that.. thus the question about conversion.

But do you have teh space for two copies during the operation? That's a key piece of why it is important.

Good question... we are 60% of the disk at the moment... so that would be no. The space inside VM it self is 50% full.. Say 2TB disk space on hypervisor. the VM is uing 1.2TB. But the OS/Files is using only 600GB out of 1.2TB.
If the cloning means 100% identical then I will not have enough space. But if there is a way to shrink while cloning then it is a viable option.

Let's not get too technical.. My real question is the ability to expand/shrink on the fly/VM stay online. I know for a fact that Gen1 cannot do that.. thus the question about conversion.

@DustinB3403 said:

Not to be rude @JaredBusch but did you read it?

Judging from the screenshot on the post I have to say it doesn't not look like conversion, but cloning instead

For additional information: we have 1 VM running 2008 R2 and 2 VMs running 2012 R2.

We have some virtual machines that were created using Gen1. We want to get those VM to Gen2 instead. The reason behind the change is IDE/SCSI resizing VM disk space. I read Microsoft's technet and learn that Gen1 utilize IDE, and is not capable of Shrinking the disk space. Only SCSI offer shrinking mechanism.

I found some powershell commands to do just that... but there are reports of errors as well. So I want to know if there is an easy way to convert Gen1 to Gen2... or better yet is there a way for Gen1 to shrink its size?

Ultimately we can create new VM and reconfigure everything from scratch (File Server).. only going to take us half a day if there is no easy way for conversion.

@Dashrender said:

@LAH3385 said:

Does upgrading to Windows 10 comes with bloatware like how new laptop nowaday get.

Sadly - sorta.

When windows 10 goes online the first time, it downloads crap like CandyCrush and Twitter. Search these forums for the tag windows 10 and you'll find my post about how to stop that from happening.

Does this help with bloatware? http://www.hwinfo.com/misc/RemoveW10Bloat.htm

Does upgrading to Windows 10 comes with bloatware like how new laptop nowaday get.

@Dashrender said:

@LAH3385 said:

@Dashrender said:

@brianlittlejohn said:

@LAH3385 Once you get the upgrade it converts your Win7 key to a Win 10. So you have to upgrade at that point since you are no longer licensed for win7

Well - that's sorta true.

Assuming you're upgrading a Windows 7 Pro legally licensed machine, you can legally use downgrade rights to install Windows 7 again.

So for your situation, my recommendation would be to copy from the ISO \sources\gatherosstate.exe to the desktop, run it as an Admin, then save the created XML file to a USB stick.

Now install a new HD into the system, remove the current one. Install Windows 10 from scratch. Once the system is installed and running copy the above saved XML to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket.

Reboot, check if the system is activated. If it is, shut it down and put your windows 7 HD back into the system and continue working. You have now activated that hardware with MS. When you're ready in the future, you can just install windows 10 and it will auto activate.

Great idea... but for 90 machines... that will take a whole week at least. Still might worth the money saved from Windows 10 license. Thanks

Assuming you had the time to upgrade them right now, you would still have to do this process or a full normal upgrade to get them activated for the free upgrade. At least with this method, you get the ability to easily keep your Windows 7 in it's current state.

FYI, you could save some time on the Win10 installs by creating an image, with sysprep, then blast that down to the drive, boot, get online, place the XML file on the system, reboot, activate replace old drive. Probably 15 mins a machine.

Do you have a more detailed how-to on this?

@Dashrender said:

@brianlittlejohn said:

@LAH3385 Once you get the upgrade it converts your Win7 key to a Win 10. So you have to upgrade at that point since you are no longer licensed for win7

Well - that's sorta true.

Assuming you're upgrading a Windows 7 Pro legally licensed machine, you can legally use downgrade rights to install Windows 7 again.

So for your situation, my recommendation would be to copy from the ISO \sources\gatherosstate.exe to the desktop, run it as an Admin, then save the created XML file to a USB stick.

Now install a new HD into the system, remove the current one. Install Windows 10 from scratch. Once the system is installed and running copy the above saved XML to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket.

Reboot, check if the system is activated. If it is, shut it down and put your windows 7 HD back into the system and continue working. You have now activated that hardware with MS. When you're ready in the future, you can just install windows 10 and it will auto activate.

Great idea... but for 90 machines... that will take a whole week at least. Still might worth the money saved from Windows 10 license. Thanks

Thanks

Is there a way to secure the free Windows 10 upgrade while still on Windows 7? We do not have volume licensing.

Second question: Why is CDW so expensive??

Beside CDW, PCMall, SHI, Dell, HP, etc... where do you buy your soft wares for business?
I am looking into MalwareBytes for business right now and CDW quoted me a price which somewhere inside me telling me there is a cheaper pricing available somewhere else.
Volume licencing.<<

@Jason said:

@RoopanKumar said:

@nadnerB for your kind information we have license but he is not telling to me he is telling to find from the server installed and to give

Sounds like his is covering up for not properly licensed systems.

Or poor documentation and he doesn't have the key on him, thus the quest to dig up key from other system.

So to answer my own thread. I use REVO Pro with Advance search/removal and that fixed the problem. Not sure why standard REVO cannot do the job. After the Advance search and delete, reinstall with installer (not GPO) and it install successfully.