Migration of servers to Proxmox VE

I miss the option of using Vmware Migration tool. It's a easy choice which works with all physical and virtual windows servers.
 
Hi,

thank you for the migration guide! I am a little stuck on the part of converting vmware images to kvm images... Does somebody know how to convert an existing vmware image PLUS a snapshot to ONE kvm image? I tried the vmware-vdiskmanager but all it does is converting between image types...
Any help is appreciated!

PSeiffert
 
Hi,

thank you for the migration guide! I am a little stuck on the part of converting vmware images to kvm images... Does somebody know how to convert an existing vmware image PLUS a snapshot to ONE kvm image? I tried the vmware-vdiskmanager but all it does is converting between image types...
Any help is appreciated!

PSeiffert
Hi,
i think you must commit the snapshot with vmware. One other possibility: boot the vm with an live cd distro (like grml) and save the diskimage via dd over the network (you get all data and don't need to commit).

Udo
 
Thank you for these two ideas... would have done it exactly the same way, if the vmware server were still existent... :) I'm currently trying to get all data by mounting the vmdk files and doing some stupid cp'ing... thanks anyway!
 
Hi,

thank you for the migration guide! I am a little stuck on the part of converting vmware images to kvm images... Does somebody know how to convert an existing vmware image PLUS a snapshot to ONE kvm image? I tried the vmware-vdiskmanager but all it does is converting between image types...
Any help is appreciated!

PSeiffert

You have to commit the snapshot to one vmdk image first. I Googled this thread:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/81123

Afterwards use the qemu-img command to convert the vmdk file to a qcow2/raw file.

The syntax of the qemu-img convert:
qemu-img convert vmwareimage.vmdk -O qcow2 kvmimage.qcow2
or
qemu-img convert vmwareimage.vmdk -O raw kvmimage.raw

I hope this will help you.

:)-|algeir
 
I moved a few vmplayer and virtualbox gusets to Proxmox KVM already. Migration from virtualbox is straightforward - I even got a win2k8 64-bit machine up and running without reinstalling any drivers: just removed guest additions, made a full HDD backup to a network share using a LiveCD, then created a new KVM guest in proxmox, selected the hardware emulated by vbox, copied the MAC of the virtual NIC, restored the backup from network, and it booted without problems!

Also tried a "dumb migration" from vmplayer by simply copying a vmdk file into proxmox, but that resulted in a BSOD on the win2k3 guest. Didn't bother to look into that - probably the advice given in previous posts will help.

Linux migration to KVM is easy as pie, as log as you're not afraid of editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab, althoug I had to disable ACPI on the guest for an old ubuntu 7.04 amd64 to boot.
 
I'm missing the option about using Vmware MIgration Tool in the guide. When I wanted to migrate a server from installation on a HP RAID1/5 disk system to kvm I tried everything. The windows server would not boot at all. Nothing worked. Finally I used Vmware Migration Tool to convert the server to vmdk disks and then converted the disks to qemu it worked magically well. And I could also resize the partitions to whatever size I wanted it to be.
 
I'm missing the option about using Vmware MIgration Tool in the guide.... Finally I used Vmware Migration Tool to convert the server to vmdk disks and then converted the disks to qemu it worked magically well. And I could also resize the partitions to whatever size I wanted it to be.

Good! You could help the community dropping a few lines about this in the wiki "server migration" pages... I did so in the past.

Marco
 
VMware to PVE/KVM

We had to migrate a VMware ESXi 3.5 to PVE 1.8/KVM.

We first tried to re-use directly the .vmdk (originated from a clone on VMware) but it didn't work.

We then tried to convert to qcow2 with the supplied command
qemu-img convert -f vmdk myImage.vmdk -O qcow2 myImage.qcow2but this aborted with a "Operation not permitted".

Then we left out the "-f vmdk" option and let qemu-img do the file type recognition: converted!

It turns out that the .vmdk file was in raw format not in the native VMware format. Tech guys that supplied me the clone were surprised to learn that.

So, suggestions for the wiki tutorial: either correct the command or specify that qemu-img can autonomously recognize the source format. Or suggest to check the format with the "file" utility, which reported correctly (afterwards :rolleyes:).

Paolo
 
Re: VMware to PVE/KVM

can you do the changes (or adding your comments) in the wiki? just register and do it!
 
I don't see any specific mention of Parallels .pvm containers in the wiki - is there an easy way to migrate a Windows VM from a Mac running Parallels to Proxmox?

--thanks
 
try with clonezilla live-cd´s.
 
Reducing the size of a KVM Windows machine

I've been searching the forum without success for this question:

I've several KVM Windows machines that were created with default disk size of 32GB . Disks are RAW.

Now I'm getting short on disk space and would like to reduce disk sizes.

I've tried to define a second disk and boot Clonezilla iso to copy from one disk to other, but seems that Clonezilla can not copy to a smaller disk.

I've also tried hdclone iso (I've used it to clone disks on physical machines to a smaller size with success), but hdclone iso hungs during boot under proxmox.

Any hint to perform this operation ?

Regards
 
Re: Reducing the size of a KVM Windows machine

It is possible

In short - one (of many) possibilities

1 TAKE backup
2 Start the server with gparted or similar
3 Reduce the filesystem to 2-300 mb above the smallest size possible
4 Reduce the RAW image with qemu-img to the new size
5 Start windows and maximize the filesystem again OR start with gparted and enlarge the fileysstem again.

See this also
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Resizing_disks

Similar commands

Best regards
 
Re: Reducing the size of a KVM Windows machine

It is possible

In short - one (of many) possibilities

1 TAKE backup
2 Start the server with gparted or similar
3 Reduce the filesystem to 2-300 mb above the smallest size possible
4 Reduce the RAW image with qemu-img to the new size
5 Start windows and maximize the filesystem again OR start with gparted and enlarge the fileysstem again.

See this also
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Resizing_disks

Similar commands

Best regards
Thank you very much, I did not found that wiki page...

I've followed your instructions and have my machine resized with no problem.
On first start, after resizing, windows machine performed a CHKDSK , and after reboot it worked.

Thanks
 

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