Editor's note: If you work in the industrial automation field and would like to share your experiences with our audience, please contact us using this form: Contact Us. He spends his days working as a Sr. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Since rebranding as The Automation Blog in , we've helped millions of visitors get up to speed on the latest industrial automation technologies, as well as teach them how to use current and legacy automation products.
Special thanks to our Sponsors , Advertisers , and Community Members who make it possible for us to continue our work!
Contact us: TheAutomationBlog. Other trademarks are property of their respective companies. You can view our Privacy Policy here and Terms here. Have A Question? Encoders Sensors. Author Recent Posts.
Brandon Cooper. Brandon is a freelance writer for The Automation Blog, as well as a husband, father, writer and angler. Install the hypervisor and get it up and running. Since you will just need this for conversion you can load either the type 1 or type 2 hypervisor on the desktop system or old server with 4GB of ram more would be better.
Next locate VMWare Standalone converter 4. Once you have the machine virtualized you can move it where you need. From the licensing side you are in a rough bit. I don't think if you purchased an enterprise version of the OS with SA would give you the downgrade rights to legally run that system off the original hardware or not.
That is probably a question for a MS licensing wizard. There has to be some way to do this and remain in compliance. First off, legacy is a major PITA. I've been supporting things legacy for a few decades now, especially while in uniform, and two things I can guarantee is that you'll run out of budget and patience about the same time.
So, the very first thing to discuss with the potential customer is the so-called business value of the data and any time and budget constraints. A lot of research is involved and since your time is quite literally your and their money, well, you know the drill. The very first thing to do with the server, and I"m assuming it is a server installation, is make at least 2 two images of any hard drives and floppies. Just the floppies can give you fits and why my shiny, shiny new motherboard has a floppy header.
At least one copy of each to be off-site, preferably all off-site. You'll be covered if the next time it is turned on is its last. Conduct a thorough hardware and software inventory. Some of the stuff may be really old, so keep an eye out for FCC identification numbers if nothing else turns up.
Armed with this information, now you can go through the software products you'll need to hand for each possible path. This is the manpower intensive part. I'm sure someone will jump in with a particular combination as perfect and VMWare is close to perfect, today but this may not hold true forever, or however long double any estimate the data may need to be retained.
Observations: I'm far less worried about the licensing issue. Should it be required, you can still pick up completely! I keep unused copies here. Hell, I have unused WfW 3. I'd be far more worried about that proprietary application. And some thought should be expended on identifying an upgrade path in that direction. It's the data that's important, at least to the client. I've actually done a heck of a lot more work in that direction. And database migrations a WORM financial success.
If you're a puzzle-person this can be the most intellectually challenging work you can find. On the other hand, it can also be the least rewarding financially, even should word-of-mouth get the attention of potential clients. Thanks for the write up Jack; I am waiting for an answer from the client on just how much money should be spent on this system. My gut tells me that he may just retire it now. It has been off line for over a year, and at the time I discovered it he could not remember what it was for and we had to contact the prior consultant.
Yep and I am a puzzle-person, I got my start in this business working with dBase3 and I love to figure out how to get data from one system to another. I have 2 PIII systems with 5. Finding the perfect solution with that old media was quite an adventure. I have successfully converted widows 7 machine into virtual using the following free utility from VMware;. It is working perfectly in VMware workstation. However, windows is not on the list of supported OS's in version 5.
Wasn't advocating doing illegally. That great sucking noise out at Pearl Harbor was me getting sucked into a full boat of every IT discipline that existed at that time. We were running beta versions of an automated logistics overhaul system that, after every damn update, with extreme prejudice recovery not even in the cards blew up the old software as well as the database. Four times. I promised myself and my fellow long suffering temps that we would never, ever do that again Thanks Taylor.
I got to practice defense in depth with no access to the "right" tools.
0コメント