ESXi to Proxmox

D

dmentorz

New Member
Oct 8, 2010
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Hi,

I'm quite the newbie on virtualization so please bear with me..., i have an ESXi 4 setup going currently and want to move it to Proxmox. i have read and tested the documentation on migrating from VMware to KVM and its all good...

My VMs are currently split between the local storage on the ESXi and a 1TB iscsi. i have a second iscsi (7.3TB) that is blank atm.

Both iscsi devices are Qnap devices.

my 1st attempt on a test went as follows:

1) download .vmdk to local windows pc
2) follow the documentation converting the **-flat.vmdk file to a **-pve.vmdk file
3) mount a share from my windows box on the proxmox via ssh
4) run the "dd" command to the newly created KVM
5) remove the hdd in the web console and add the existing drive again
6) boot

the vm booted but i had to run a repair on win xp before i could actually get into the OS.

is there a quicker / better way of doing this ? doing it the way i did nearly took a full day for a 160GB vm....

Thanks
 
udo said:
Hi,
i don't know ESXi, but with vSphere the disk images allready one big "raw"-file.
copy with scp to the proxmox-host, rename and boot - inside the VM you must perhaps repair (windows).

Udo
Click to expand...

Just for clarification: vSphere and ESXi are the same. ESX and ESXi were different, but beginning with vSphere 4.1 (latest), only ESXi is supported (smaller install, based on busybox).
 
Thanks Udo & Tom,

sounds great that i can just copy the vmdk files over and rename, but i would like to clarify :

i have tried to see were to put the files in scp on the proxmox so they reside on the iscsi, but i cant seem to find it. lets say i called my VG "pve1" would i then copy them to /dev/pve1/ and rename to vm-102-** (without a .vmdk) ?
 
Last edited:
Hi,
scp is for local storage. If you have external lvm-storage you must define the disk first (logical volume) and than you must copy the imagefile on the proxmox host to the lv: like
Code: 
dd if=server1-flat.vmdk of=/dev/drbdvg/vm-103-disk-1 bs=1024k
one copy process on top...

But you can first try the VM with local storage - and if all works, than copy the file to lv. (sometimes a repair-installation don't work).

Udo
 
i cant run it on local storage first, my local storage is a 80gb SSD drive and my vm is 160gb
so i guess i'll have to run the dd command over the network....
 
dmentorz said:
i cant run it on local storage first, my local storage is a 80gb SSD drive and my vm is 160gb
so i guess i'll have to run the dd command over the network....
Click to expand...
Hi,
if you have a linux-box with storage, you can use this as an nfs-server and mount this from the proxmox-node. (also scp to linux-box; share with nfs; test; if all ok copy with dd on the proxmox-host).

Of course, the traffic go two times over the net, but i like to test before.

Udo
 
just as a matter of interest, how would it effect the system if i rename the .vmdk file on my local windows pc to pve1-vm--102--disk--1 and copy it into the /dev/mapper directory and replace the one created by the web gui... would that not "technically" save it where ever the original was saved ?
 
dmentorz said:
just as a matter of interest, how would it effect the system if i rename the .vmdk file on my local windows pc to pve1-vm--102--disk--1 and copy it into the /dev/mapper directory and replace the one created by the web gui... would that not "technically" save it where ever the original was saved ?
Click to expand...

short anwser: no
long anwser: learn what /dev directory is: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/502

P.S. If You want use file based disk image than You can move such file into /var/vz, this will work.
 
Hi everyone,

Got it working without having to do a repair :) eventually, after googling for hours...found some thread that mentioned something about the ide / ata controller causing havoc when migrating from vmware to kvm. so i uninstalled the ide /ata controller in vmware, copied the vmdk to the nfs share, mounted and booted. works like a charm :)

but now....that was on a windows xp pc with an ide hdd in vmware, is the procedure any different when doing a 2003 pc with scsi hdd ? do i just mount it as a ide ?
 
Hi Tom,

i read through it again. im just trying to check, do i mount it in proxmox as ide regardless of what it was in vmware ?
 
dmentorz said:
Hi Tom,

i read through it again. im just trying to check, do i mount it in proxmox as ide regardless of what it was in vmware ?
Click to expand...

I think i answered my own question....and found my issue...will do a bit of testing and get back with my findings.
 
I finally got the quickest, easiest way to convert from ESXi to proxmox :)

I used the vmware stand alone converter to convert the "existing pc" (ESXi VM with a scsi hdd) to a .vmdk file.
Then remounted the .vmdk on a standalone vmware server 2.0, removed the vmware tools, double check the .sys files are there (as per the migration docs), removed the ide / ata controller driver, ran the mergeide.reg and shutdown.

Copied the .vmdk to my nfs share and mounted to my kvm vm.

She boots up beautifully :)

Thanks for all the help and support :D
 
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