Proxmox - importing VMware ESXi (vmdk) machine (ubuntu based) - cannot process volume group

[jaceqp]

Hi there.
I'm struggling with a following task.
One of my clients wants to deploy a freshly bought custom ERP'ish platform.
the system with half-ready OS, database etc. comes as a VM in one of following formats: VMware ESXi or MS Hyper-V. ERP software developer recommends only those hypervisors.
As a Proxmox enthusiast I recommended to run new server on Proxmox anyway.
I have very limited access to the ERP structure itself. All I got is a downloadable VMware ESXi (3 files with *vmdk, *ovf *.mf extensions) . I've already imported VMware vm to proxmox itself using "qm importovf"

I've also noticed it's linux based (ubuntu) vm... Now, VM starts fine however boot process stops at the end with following errors:



It's possible that ERP VM has some kind of encryption running (as noticed on a pretty "trimmed" technical documentation). Could Promox import/convert procedure break VD encryption? Perhapse there's some kind of decrypt/encrypt required.
Or perhapse I'm just reading it wrong and the issue is let's say permissions related...

I think I might get very limited support on that deployment since it's performed on a "non-recommended" hypervisor.

PS. VM was imported with "default" LSI SCSI controller. I've changed the controller to VirtioSCSI later on, but that's not the case (same error on boot). Perhapse there's a VD ID/path issue - no clue.

 

[fabian]

if you don't have support from the vendor, you basically need to reverse-engineer the exact config needed. so, start with looking at the metadata (the importovf command only converts the bare essentials), boot the VM with a livecd and look at the bootloader/initrd for hints at what it expects. the messages indicate some missing network setup (potentially a certain emulated NIC model or MAC address?) and a LUKS-encrypted disk. there's also SSH running (dropbear), so maybe the unlocking is supposed to happen automatically via some client/admin software and SSH? who knows - it's basically guessing at this point

 

[jaceqp]

if you don't have support from the vendor, you basically need to reverse-engineer the exact config needed. so, start with looking at the metadata (the importovf command only converts the bare essentials), boot the VM with a livecd and look at the bootloader/initrd for hints at what it expects. the messages indicate some missing network setup (potentially a certain emulated NIC model or MAC address?) and a LUKS-encrypted disk. there's also SSH running (dropbear), so maybe the unlocking is supposed to happen automatically via some client/admin software and SSH? who knows - it's basically guessing at this point

Obviously it's a pretty sh*ty situation without vendor's support.
For now non-existent network connection is a lower grade issue - if OS itself will run we'd go from there.

Anyway better than nothing... Thanks for the tips.
I'm about to contact tech support anyway - we'll see.

PS. I also wanted to run VMware environment anywhere and see the result from there (for comparison). Despite having vmware account I'm unable to download any trial isos from there (wtf).

PS2. Worst case scenario is imo Win2019 Hyper-V as host - however with win2019 license also already purchased it's quite probable.

 

[jaceqp]

Surprisingly VM works.
Here how it works: during boot it has to establish internet connection 1st -> then establish OpenVPN connection -> then transfer decryption key from vendors services to encrypted volume

Main issue was that prebuilt VM was already configured with final network IP setup. Connection was broken because server running on my environment (with different network setup).

BTW: prebuilt VM had a virtual NIC adapter set as VMware VMXNET3 Ethernet Controller - not sure if it matters but seems Proxmox has also same NIC profile implemented. I tried the VMXNET3 adapter - works fine. However changing NIC to virtio paravirtualized also works - any suggestions what shall I choose?

I have one (hopefully final) question. Since I'm unable to login to VM itself I'm unable to verify if there's qemu guest agent installed there. Only thing that makes me wonder is VM's summary page showing CPU/RAM usage yet under network (IP) Iget the "guest agent not running" tag.
Might be wrong but does qemu agent affect issues with executing VMs reboot/shutdown commands?
I had no issues with shutting down VM yesterday, I'm having it now (typical var/lib/ lock got timeout etc). Could be the case with turning on qemu agent in VM option without actual service runnning on VM?
If that might be the case I'll have to ask vendors support for adding qemu-agent (I'd ask them anyway)...

 

[fabian]

if it boots virtio, that is probably preferred since its faster than emulating vmxnet. you should only set the agent flag in the VM config if there is a guest agent running inside the VM, otherwise you'll get warnings and errors for all kinds of operations.

 

[jaceqp]

if it boots virtio, that is probably preferred since its faster than emulating vmxnet. you should only set the agent flag in the VM config if there is a guest agent running inside the VM, otherwise you'll get warnings and errors for all kinds of operations.

Qemu agent up'n'running on VM. Works as expected. In the meantime I've found out how to check if VM has qemu agent:

qm agent <vmid> ping