Migrate to ProxMox from Ubuntu KVM-libvirt LVM-based Virtual Machine Server

[OsloFats]

Hi. I read through "Migration of servers to Proxmox VE" and still had some questions. I have two VM servers sitting in front of me. One has Proxmox 1.4 beta2 on it and the 2nd has ubuntu server 9.04 - amd64, with Four KVM-based Virtual Machines running on LVM. I want to move the VMs from the Ubuntu server to the Proxmox server.

What is my best option for migrating the VMs? Here is what I'm thinking.

Option 1: Using the Proxmox web-GUI, create a new VM that is 1 G bigger than the Ubuntu VM that I want to copy. Then dd copy the Ubuntu VM from the Ubuntu LVM to the newly created LVM volume group on the Proxmox server (that the web-GUI created for me). Then I hit start on the Proxmox web-GUI and everything should come up fine.

Option 2: On the Ubuntu server, I apt-get install the proxmox image, modify grub and update software. Proxmox will recognize the LVM volumes but somewhere I need to create the Proxmox VM for those volumes so on creation, Proxmox won't overwrite the partitions. Sounds risky but...?

Option 3: Other options?

Thanks for any help?

Oslo

 

[OsloFats]

I partially answered my own question. Yes for option one but I am using identical servers. What if the servers were not identical? Should the VM work when moved?

Anyway, if it helps anyone, here is what I did to move a Win2000 VM from a kvm-based Ubuntu 9.04-server amd64 to a server running proxmox 1.4 beta2. My transfer medium was an external usb drive formatted using ext3.

#Backup On Prod Server
# Plug in usb drive and locate drive. You might want to use fdisk to help. In fdisk type 'p' to list partitions. 'm' for help.
fdisk /dev/sdb
# mount drive if not mounted
mkdir /mnt/drive2
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/drive2

# Find LVM file to copy
sudo lvdisplay
sudo dd if=/dev/vmgroup/vm52 of=/mnt/drive2/vm_2000.dd
ls -lh /mnt/drive2/
sudo umount /mnt/drive2

#Migrate to New Server
# Plug in usb drive and locate drive. See directions above
mkdir /mnt/drive2
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/drive2
ls -lh /mnt/drive2/

# Locate desired VM to replace and rename. They are in the images folder.
ls -hl /var/lib/vz/images/103
mv /var/lib/vz/images/103/*.raw /var/lib/vz/images/103/vm-103-disk-1.raw.back

# Copy the external usb file to the proxmox lvm
dd if=/mnt/drive2/vm_2000.dd of=/var/lib/vz/images/103/vm-103-disk-1.raw

# Clean-up
rm /var/lib/vz/images/103/vm-103-disk-1.raw.back

# Unmount
sudo umount /mnt/drive2

Enjoy!

Oslo

 

[dietmar]

What if the servers were not identical? Should the VM work when moved?

yes