Move Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Physical Machine to KVM (or openVZ)

[Petrus4]

I have an old email server that I need to turn into a VM.

Running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

From what I have read the easiest migration to a VM is to a KVM VM instead of OpenVZ.


The move has to be live as I cannot down the mail server. After creating the new VM replica of the mail-server I am looking at run rsync on the mailboxes right before I cut over to the virtual email server.

Has anyone tried this before and can you recommend any tools that would allow a live move from physical to VM?

Thanks!

 

[tom]

As 6.06 is out of support now I assume you also need to upgrade your OS. And best would be the mail server provides an online upgrade path to a new box. (a new VM)

 

[Petrus4]

As 6.06 is out of support now I assume you also need to upgrade your OS. And best would be the mail server provides an online upgrade path to a new box. (a new VM)

thanks for your response Tom,

Yes this exactly what I need to do, since 6.06 is end of service I need to upgrade. I plan to move it to a VM and then upgrade since I currently am lacking space on the Mail server to do an upgrade on the physical machine.

I am looking at vmware converter, but am not sure if the free version supports live conversion to vmdk. I would then use the vmdk to create a KVM VM. Do you know of any other live conversion tools?

You wrote "best would be the mail server provides an online upgrade path to a new box. (a new VM)" I have not read about a online upgrade path... can you direct me to any documentation on this?

 

[tom]

as you do not posted what mail server software you use it would be hard to give advice, contact the vendor.

I did several of mail server migrations (online), but with MS exchange on windows.

 

[Petrus4]

as you do not posted what mail server software you use it would be hard to give advice, contact the vendor.

I did several of mail server migrations (online), but with MS exchange on windows.

Ah, OK I am using postfix, courier-imap, postgrey, spamassassin, squirrelmail on Ubuntu.

 

[tom]

I have no recommendations for an online migration path. If you also move to new versions of your tool chain you will probably need to adapt your config files, so just copying to a new OS could not be enough.

 

[Petrus4]

I have no recommendations for an online migration path. If you also move to new versions of your tool chain you will probably need to adapt your config files, so just copying to a new OS could not be enough.

Yeah I figured as much.. Thats why I want to move the whole installation to a VM then upgrade in place on the new VM.

Other option is to export users/ passwords and aliases to a new supported version of Ubuntu with mail server already configured, run rsync on the the Maildirs once to copy all mailboxes then again to update the Mailboxes (since rsync will take a long time the first time). Then do a cut over and run rsync again on all the Maildirs just to make sure any missed email would be copied over.

With the second option I can set up an OpenVZ container (instead of KVM) for the new email server.. which will be a performance benefit.

I will post back on how it goes. Just wish there were more tools to do an online migration of physical to virtual machine for openVZ or KVM.