Migrating from VirtualBox to Proxmox, with ZFS storage

[danb35]

I've installed Proxmox VE 4 on ZFS (currently a single disk for testing, will be on a larger pool in production), and set up ZFS storage on the server. I've created a couple of VMs on the machine, and I see that their virtual disks are being created as zvols, which makes perfect sense.

I have a couple of VMs running under VirtualBox that I'd like to migrate to Proxmox. Google finds a number of descriptions of how the conversion can be done (the most recent one I see is http://www.jamescoyle.net/how-to/1218-upload-ova-to-proxmox-kvm), but they all seem to involve converting a .vmdk virtual disk file into a .qcow2 virtual disk file. Is there a way I haven't found yet to convert the .vmdk to a zvol?

 

[tom]

I've installed Proxmox VE 4 on ZFS (currently a single disk for testing, will be on a larger pool in production), and set up ZFS storage on the server. I've created a couple of VMs on the machine, and I see that their virtual disks are being created as zvols, which makes perfect sense.

I have a couple of VMs running under VirtualBox that I'd like to migrate to Proxmox. Google finds a number of descriptions of how the conversion can be done (the most recent one I see is http://www.jamescoyle.net/how-to/1218-upload-ova-to-proxmox-kvm), but they all seem to involve converting a .vmdk virtual disk file into a .qcow2 virtual disk file. Is there a way I haven't found yet to convert the .vmdk to a zvol?

use the "move disk" button on the GUI?

 

[danb35]

That would seem like the obvious choice, not sure how I missed it. Thanks!

To carry the thought further, if the GUI will move/convert a virtual disk image to a zvol, there really isn't any reason to manually convert a .vmdk into a .qcow2, is there? The workflow would then look like:

• Copy .vmdk to proxmox box
• Create VM to suitable specs, using a .vmdk virtual disk
• Copy the existing .vmdk over the newly-created one
• Use move disk in the GUI to convert the .vmdk into a zvol

Right?

 

[tom]

yes.

 

[danb35]

Ran through those steps, and they appear to work fine. Thanks again!