Best way to migrate 2.x VMs to newer 4.x install?

[MagicFab]

I need to migrate several VMs from a 2.x host to a 4.x host.

What would be the most efficient way to go about it? What features can i take advantage of in 4.x that are not in 2.x? I am thinking for example moving to Spice (simple change) but perhaps other changes (storage type, we'll setup a cluster later on this newer system so raw or else may be better)?

I'd appreciate anysuggestions.

 

[udo]

Hi,
the normal way should work: backup the vm and restore them on the pve4.x cluster.

Advantages? A lot!
+ newer quemu (better performance)
+ OpenVSwitch: better network performance
+ IOThreads possible - better IO-performance with multibles VM-disks
+ snapshot-possibility (depends on the storage/hdd-format)

Of course, this depends on the VMs... perhaps you don't see any improvement... but in general it's not an bad idea to update the hypervisor.

Udo

 

[MagicFab]

I presume by "restore" you mean:

1. Add NFS storage used in 2.x backups to the 4.x setup
2. Restore from that storage

Is that it? Then I can manage converting storage containers, etc.

 

[LnxBil]

Don't forget ZFS as the most important storage feature.

 

[udo]

I presume by "restore" you mean:

1. Add NFS storage used in 2.x backups to the 4.x setup
2. Restore from that storage

Is that it? Then I can manage converting storage containers, etc.

Hi,
kvm should work without trouble... containers depends... (I have tried an "special" container without success).
But I have switched all other VMs to kvm before (because of kernel 3.10 and shared storage).

Udo