Preparing Windows VMs for Conversion to Alibaba Cloud ECS

Before performing a backup that will be used for VM conversion, you must install the vioscsi and viostor drivers on the source VMs.

Before You Begin

• Virtual machines running the following guest operating systems can be converted to Alibaba Cloud ECS instances:

  • Windows Server 2012

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Windows Server 2019

• Download VirtIO drivers as described in Creating Windows virtual machines using VirtIO drivers.

Procedure

1. Download the ISO image file of virtio drivers for vioscsi.inf and viostor.inf.

2. Mount the ISO image file to a virtual drive.

3. Perform the following steps for both driver files (vioscsi.inf and viostor.inf):

   1. Run hdwwiz.exe.

      The Add New Hardware wizard opens.

   2. Select the Install the hardware that I manually select from a list option.

   3. For the hardware type, select Show All Devices, and then click Next.

   4. Click Have Disk.

      The Install from Disk dialog box appears.

   5. Browse and select the driver file, and then click OK.

   6. Click Next to continue.

   7. Click Next again to start installing the driver, and then click Finish when the installation completes.

4. From the Windows Explorer, right-click the vioscsi.inf or viostor.inf file, and then click Install.

5. Add the following registry keys to the Windows registry hive:

   1. Add the vioscsi driver to the CriticalDeviceDatabase, as follows:

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\PCI#VEN_1AF4&DEV_1004&SUBSYS_00081AF4&REV_00] "ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" "Service"="vioscsi"

   2. Add the viostor driver to the CriticalDeviceDatabase, as follows:

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\PCI#VEN_1AF4&DEV_1001&SUBSYS_00021AF4&REV_00] "ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" "Service"="viostor"

      The ClassGUID value depends on the Windows server operating system. To get the appropriate ClassGUID value, perform the following steps:

      • From the Windows Explorer, go to vioscsi or viostor > operating system folder > amd64.

      • Right-click the vioscsi.inf or viostor.inf file, and then click Open with.

      • Select Notepad, and then click OK.

      • Search for the ClassGUID entry.

6. Perform a backup operation for the modified source VMs.