[SOLVED] Migrating physical windows server to VM ceph

[Vivaldi]

I'm trying to move physical windows server 2008 to Ceph VM. After cloning with Clonezilla, I get BSOD 0x7b error. I added vioscsi driver through recovery console but it didn't help.
Any tips??

 

[gurubert]

There is an article in the wiki explaining the process: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migration_of_servers_to_Proxmox_VE

 

[Vivaldi]

Yes, I read that but this doesn't work really with Ceph I believe. I could do that with Windows XP on Local storage so I assume that Ceph might be the problem.

 

[aaron]

Can you start the VM after you imported it to local storage and then moved the disk image to your Ceph storage? You can move disk images when you select the disk and then use the "Disk Action -> Move storage" buttons.

Can you post the contents of your /etc/pve/storage.cfg file? Bet into [code][/code] tags

 

[Vivaldi]

Can you start the VM after you imported it to local storage and then moved the disk image to your Ceph storage?

I don't quite get that. I created VM on Ceph storage. I did not import any VM.

/etc/pve/storage.cfg

dir: local
        path /var/lib/vz
        content images,backup,snippets,vztmpl,iso,rootdir
        shared 1

lvmthin: Local_LVM
        thinpool data
        vgname pve
        content rootdir,images
        nodes Proxmox1

rbd: Ceph
        content rootdir,images
        krbd 1
        nodes Proxmox1
        pool device_health_metrics

nfs: Backup
        export /volume1/BackupProxmox
        path /mnt/pve/Backup
        server xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
        content rootdir,iso,vztmpl,backup,snippets,images
        nodes Proxmox1
        prune-backups keep-last=15

 

[aaron]

Thanks for the storage config. One thing I noticed is that you configured the storage to use the device_health_metrics pool.

This is not a good idea! It is meant for Ceph internal managment and monitoring data alone. If you upgrade to Ceph Quincy (v17), it will be renamed to .mgr.
To fix this, create a new pool, move any disk images you might have over to the new pool and remove the storage configuration for "Ceph".

I don't quite get that. I created VM on Ceph storage. I did not import any VM.

Sorry for the confusion. AFAIU you tried to migrate a Windows 2008 server to Proxmox VE with the disk image on your Ceph storage. It did not boot.
Then you created a Windows XP VM with the disk image on local storage and it booted?

I do not believe that Ceph is the cause for the Windows Server to not boot up as the VM itself has no knowledge of the underlying storage. It gets a disk presented from the virtualization.
That's why I asked, if it works, if the VM disks are on some local storage and not Ceph. My guess is, that it also wouldn't work.

One easy thing you can check: Does the source machine boot in BIOS or UEFI mode? If it is booting in UEFI mode, then you would need to change the BIOS for the VM as, according to the screenshot, it is currently configured to boot in (legacy) BIOS mode.
If that does not help, we need to look further why it is not booting.

 

[Vivaldi]

Thanks for the storage config. One thing I noticed is that you configured the storage to use the device_health_metrics pool.

This is not a good idea! It is meant for Ceph internal managment and monitoring data alone. If you upgrade to Ceph Quincy (v17), it will be renamed to .mgr.
To fix this, create a new pool, move any disk images you might have over to the new pool and remove the storage configuration for "Ceph".

Thanks for that tip! We wanted to upgrade Proxmox along with Ceph soon.

Sorry for the confusion. AFAIU you tried to migrate a Windows 2008 server to Proxmox VE with the disk image on your Ceph storage. It did not boot.
Then you created a Windows XP VM with the disk image on local storage and it booted?

Correct. For XP I used IDE (local-lvm) drive and clonezilla via network. This time for Server 2008 IDE (ceph) restored from USB HDD (too much data for the network).
I added in Recovery Console (after restoring) via DISM vioscsi drivers but it didn't work.

I do not believe that Ceph is the cause for the Windows Server to not boot up as the VM itself has no knowledge of the underlying storage. It gets a disk presented from the virtualization.
That's why I asked, if it works, if the VM disks are on some local storage and not Ceph. My guess is, that it also wouldn't work.

I tried to launch it (windows server) from local-lvm but it didn't help.

One easy thing you can check: Does the source machine boot in BIOS or UEFI mode? If it is booting in UEFI mode, then you would need to change the BIOS for the VM as, according to the screenshot, it is currently configured to boot in (legacy) BIOS mode.
If that does not help, we need to look further why it is not booting.

It is an AM BIOS from Intel Multi-Flex blade server. No UEFI.

 

[aaron]

Okay, so the XP machine worked fine after moving it from bare metal to a VM via Clonezilla?

How far do you get in the boot process of the Windows Server machine? It is possible, that something went wrong when creating the image.
You could inspect the disk image by booting from a live CD iso.

For the disk drivers, on a Windows machine, you should set the bus type of the disk first to "ide" or "sata". Then you can install the drivers from the VirtIO iso. In order for it to boot from a disk using virtio block or virtio scsi, you need to follow this dance.

1. Add a new small dummy disk that is using the bus type of choice.
2. wait until it shows up in the device manager and disk mgmt tool inside the VM
3. detach and remove the dummy disk
4. detach the boot disk
5. edit the boot disk to the bus type of your choice
6. adapt the boot order (Options panel of the VM)
7. start the VM

If everything went fine, the VM will boot. If something went wrong, change the disk back to ide or sata. Don't forget the boot order.
What you will usually see (in recent Windows versions, haven't tried it in Server 2008), is a blue screen with "inaccessible boot device".

But before you do the dance, we need to first get the VM started with ide or sata for the boot disk.

 

[Vivaldi]

Thank you so much Aaron for guidance. You are a great help!

 

[aaron]

Good to hear