Move SSD with proxmox to another hardware

[Emerson]

Can I move a SSD with proxmox (and 1 VM) to another hardware? We will have to do some databases migrations and I was wondering if I install proxmox on one hardware if I can later move it to another one. If there is some preparations to be done (reduce ram or core count on the VM) please let me know.

If I can't, how is the best way to migrate proxmox and the virtual machines on it?


Thanks

 

[Stefan_R]

If all of your data is stored on that one SSD, then sure, moving it to another system effectively migrates PVE to the new node.

Alternatively, you can reinstall PVE on the new node and bring over backups from your old system.

 

[Emerson]

If all of your data is stored on that one SSD, then sure, moving it to another system effectively migrates PVE to the new node.

Alternatively, you can reinstall PVE on the new node and bring over backups from your old system.

It will work without problems? I mean, if it is a different hardware configuration, like memory and number of cores of the CPU.

 

[emmanuel]

It will work without problems? I mean, if it is a different hardware configuration, like memory and number of cores of the CPU.

I've done this a lot of times, but moving it to "another hardware" is very easy provided that this "new hardware" is an added node.
Let's say "old hardware" is node1 and "new hardware is node2. Add node2 to node1's cluster and moving it will take a few minutes in my experience.

Or
1. You can just backup the containers/kvm in node1, mount an external hard drive/flash drive and transfer the backups there and restore it on node2.
2. You can just backup the containers/kvm in node1, and transfer it to node2 via sftp or scp over the network.

If your containers/kvm specs are well within the spec of your "new hardware" or node2, there should be no issues. I've done it countless times on web servers and database servers, even those synced with haproxy.

 

[aaron]

It will work without problems? I mean, if it is a different hardware configuration, like memory and number of cores of the CPU.

If you have less memory you need to make sure that the guests don't consume too much.

You might have to adapt the network config because it is possible that the name of the network interface changes.

 

[Emerson]

I just tried moving the SSD with proxmox to one computer to another, but network is not working, probably something with mac address or drivers, any clue or way to fix it? Can i create a new interface to it or edit the existing one?

 

[leesteken]

Sounds like you have to change the old interface name to match the new one in /etc/network/interfaces (or the web GUI, which you can probably not reach because of the network issue). You can probably find the new name using dmesg | grep 'renamed from eth'.
If you are doing PCI passthrough, you will have to make sure the PCI addresses used by the VMs are changed accordingly. If you are also switching from an Intel CPU to an AMD CPU , you might need to change the kernel command line to reflect the change.
If you are using USB passthrough using physical port numbers, you will have to change those to match the new motherboard.

 

[Emerson]

Sounds like you have to change the old interface name to match the new one in /etc/network/interfaces (or the web GUI, which you can probably not reach because of the network issue). You can probably find the new name using dmesg | grep 'renamed from eth'.
If you are doing PCI passthrough, you will have to make sure the PCI addresses used by the VMs are changed accordingly. If you are also switching from an Intel CPU to an AMD CPU , you might need to change the kernel command line to reflect the change.
If you are using USB passthrough using physical port numbers, you will have to change those to match the new motherboard.

Yeah, I see the new interface, but it looks like what needs to be done is create the virtual interface and attach it to the new physical interface, any ideia on how to do that?

Right now I can't even ping the gateway (in my understanding at this moment is that proxmox create a virtual interface and uses it for its own communication and vms communications).

 

[leesteken]

Yeah, I see the new interface, but it looks like what needs to be done is create the virtual interface and attach it to the new physical interface, any ideia on how to do that?

Right now I can't even ping the gateway (in my understanding at this moment is that proxmox create a virtual interface and uses it for its own communication and vms communications).

I'm not sure what you mean. Did you find the name of the new interface? Did it differ from the name of the old interface. Did you replace all occurrences of the old name with the new name in /etcnetwork//interfaces?

 

[fabiettoprox79]

I've done this a lot of times, but moving it to "another hardware" is very easy provided that this "new hardware" is an added node.
Let's say "old hardware" is node1 and "new hardware is node2. Add node2 to node1's cluster and moving it will take a few minutes in my experience.

Or
1. You can just backup the containers/kvm in node1, mount an external hard drive/flash drive and transfer the backups there and restore it on node2.
2. You can just backup the containers/kvm in node1, and transfer it to node2 via sftp or scp over the network.

If your containers/kvm specs are well within the spec of your "new hardware" or node2, there should be no issues. I've done it countless times on web servers and database servers, even those synced with haproxy.

Sorry for the re-up of this post, I need to move from an Intel Nuc (Proxmox 6.4) to a Lenovo P340 tiny, if I install Proxmox 7 on the Lenovo, addind it as node 2 of the Nuc cluster, then I can leave only the Lenovo pc as a server for Proxmox? The nuc will became a windows 10 pc to be used by another person. I'm searching the fastest and best way to migrate all my data i.e. vm and ct from the "old" pc to the "new" one, and I have no way to setup a Proxmox backup Server on a third machine.

 

[leesteken]

Maybe you can just move the SSD from the Nuc to the P340? Clustering and unclustering sounds a bit complicated for just this. Or make "normal Proxmox VE backups" and scp them to the new machine? Or just share the backup storage of the Nuc via NFS or samba, and restore them on the P340?

 

[fabiettoprox79]

Ok thank you for some options: on the nuc the ssd is a 2,5" sata while the p340 has only nvme m2 slots, I have vzdump backup of all ct's and vm's on an external usb ssd I will try to setup the p340 with proxmox on it's actual m2 nvme of 256gb to test if everything is working making a restore of the backed-up things, directly attaching the usb drive to the new pc or first make a share on the network of this usb drive to avoid problems. Later if all is working I will replace the 256gb nvme with a bigger one to have more space as a boot disk and a second nvme I don't know how the best way to set it.

 

[milty456]

I also have this issue, but unsure what to change.
Here is the settings as it existed on the old pc



Here is what that DMESG GREP output was

 

[leesteken]

I would change all occurrences of enp2s0 to enp0s31f6. I don't know what to do with wlp4s0; does your new system have WiFi built in?

 

[milty456]

I would change all occurrences of enp2s0 to enp0s31f6. I don't know what to do with wlp4s0; does your new system have WiFi built in?

Thanks ! That worked; appreciate it!

Now i assume i'll have to mess with the VMs as well that are running within this Proxmox environment. Cross that bridge soon

 

[ZeroQool]

Hello, I have got 2 SSD and I want to change the hardware. Is it possible?


Thanks