Migrating from ESXi 6 to ProxmoxVE 8 with NFS Data store?

[Socialoutcast]

So I am in need of migrating my entire ESXi stack to ProxmoxVE. Sadly, I cannot afford a second server, so I cannot do the live migration tool. Another major issue I have is I store around 9TB of data for some servers on a NAS using NFS that I cannot lose. Is there a way to migrate all the data and VM to proxmox? I don't really care if it's hard, I want to get away from ESXi if possible. I have been searching, but I am also new to Proxmox, so I am not entirely sure if what I have found will work. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Der Harry]

I never used the ESXi migration tool - and I probably never will

So here is my (manual) approach:
- shutdown all ESXi vms
- remove autostart in ESXi
- double check that VMs are down and that there is no autocheck
- copy the VMs e.g. ".../datastore1/things" from ESXi to "somewhere" e.g. a NAS
- create checksums
- verify checksums
- install proxmox

I am refering to the following things:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE#Manual_Migration


Here some garbage I enter on the CLI - this is pretty advanced stuff. We imported many many VMs in this approach.

You need to change basically everything.

# Create the VM without a Disk

export VMID=11100
VMNAME=Win2016Server
STORAGE=local
MEMORY=32768
CORES=2
SOCKETS=4

## This is a Win2016 server
#
## os type is "win 10"
## machine is "default"

qm stop ${VMID} || true
qm destroy ${VMID} --destroy-unreferenced-disks 1 --purge 1 || true
qm create ${VMID} --name ${VMNAME} --ostype win10
qm set ${VMID} --memory ${MEMORY} --sockets ${SOCKETS} --cores ${CORES} --cpu host
qm set ${VMID} --agent enabled=1,fstrim_cloned_disks=1
qm set ${VMID} --machine pc-q35-8.1
qm set ${VMID} --bios ovmf
qm set ${VMID} -efidisk0 ${STORAGE}:1,format=qcow2,efitype=4m,pre-enrolled-keys=1
qm set ${VMID} --scsihw virtio-scsi-single
qm set ${VMID} -ide1 local:iso/virtio-win.iso,media=cdrom
#qm set ${VMID} -ide2 local:iso/systemrescue-11.00-amd64.iso,media=cdrom
#qm config ${VMID}

# import the Disk from VM

VMID=11100
DISK_NUMBER=1
VMDK=/nfs/esxi-imports/Win2016Server/Win2016Server.vmdk
COW_DIR=/var/lib/vz/images/${VMID}
COW_FILE=${COW_DIR}/vm-${VMID}-disk-${DISK_NUMBER}.qcow2

mkdir -p "${COW_DIR}"
qemu-img convert -f vmdk "${VMDK}" -O qcow2 "${COW_FILE}"

echo disk is at: ${COW_FILE}
qm set ${VMID} -ide0 ${COW_FILE},ssd=1,discard=on
qm set ${VMID} --boot order=ide0

- start the VM after import (we have no network)
- install the drivers from the virt-io.win.iso
- stop the VM

export VMID=11100

qm set ${VMID} --vga virtio
qm set ${VMID} --delete ide1
#qm set ${VMID} --delete ide2

# you need to change the mac address
qm set ${VMID} --net0 virtio=ab:cd:ef:01:02:03,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1

Now the machine has propper drivers and can go to the internet.

 

[Socialoutcast]

I never used the ESXi migration tool - and I probably never will

So here is my (manual) approach:
- shutdown all ESXi vms
- remove autostart in ESXi
- double check that VMs are down and that there is no autocheck
- copy the VMs e.g. ".../datastore1/things" from ESXi to "somewhere" e.g. a NAS
- create checksums
- verify checksums
- install proxmox

I am refering to the following things:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migrate_to_Proxmox_VE#Manual_Migration


Here some garbage I enter on the CLI - this is pretty advanced stuff. We imported many many VMs in this approach.

You need to change basically everything.

# Create the VM without a Disk

export VMID=11100
VMNAME=Win2016Server
STORAGE=local
MEMORY=32768
CORES=2
SOCKETS=4

## This is a Win2016 server
#
## os type is "win 10"
## machine is "default"

qm stop ${VMID} || true
qm destroy ${VMID} --destroy-unreferenced-disks 1 --purge 1 || true
qm create ${VMID} --name ${VMNAME} --ostype win10
qm set ${VMID} --memory ${MEMORY} --sockets ${SOCKETS} --cores ${CORES} --cpu host
qm set ${VMID} --agent enabled=1,fstrim_cloned_disks=1
qm set ${VMID} --machine pc-q35-8.1
qm set ${VMID} --bios ovmf
qm set ${VMID} -efidisk0 ${STORAGE}:1,format=qcow2,efitype=4m,pre-enrolled-keys=1
qm set ${VMID} --scsihw virtio-scsi-single
qm set ${VMID} -ide1 local:iso/virtio-win.iso,media=cdrom
#qm set ${VMID} -ide2 local:iso/systemrescue-11.00-amd64.iso,media=cdrom
#qm config ${VMID}

# import the Disk from VM

VMID=11100
DISK_NUMBER=1
VMDK=/nfs/esxi-imports/Win2016Server/Win2016Server.vmdk
COW_DIR=/var/lib/vz/images/${VMID}
COW_FILE=${COW_DIR}/vm-${VMID}-disk-${DISK_NUMBER}.qcow2

mkdir -p "${COW_DIR}"
qemu-img convert -f vmdk "${VMDK}" -O qcow2 "${COW_FILE}"

echo disk is at: ${COW_FILE}
qm set ${VMID} -ide0 ${COW_FILE},ssd=1,discard=on
qm set ${VMID} --boot order=ide0

- start the VM after import (we have no network)
- install the drivers from the virt-io.win.iso
- stop the VM

export VMID=11100

qm set ${VMID} --vga virtio
qm set ${VMID} --delete ide1
#qm set ${VMID} --delete ide2

# you need to change the mac address
qm set ${VMID} --net0 virtio=ab:cd:ef:01:02:03,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1

Now the machine has propper drivers and can go to the internet.

Thank you this will help a lot. I was really concerned about losing all my data.