xenmigrate: merge disks

[Alessandro 123]

Hi to all
I'm trying to convert some XVA to raw images with xenmigrate.
Some questions:

1) is possible to create a single image from multipe disk images? Our XVA has many "Ref:", probably one for each partition. I would like to create a single img file with all partitions inside

2) after converting to IMG, should I use qemu-img to convert from IMG to QCOW2 ?

Thanks

 

[Mr.Holmes]

Hello Alessandro,

I'm trying to convert some XVA to raw images with xenmigrate.
Some questions:

1) is possible to create a single image from multipe disk images? Our XVA has many "Ref:", probably one for each partition. I would like to create a single img file with all partitions inside

In case of Proxmox you have 1 disk = 1 file

See some hints also at https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Xenmigrate

2) after converting to IMG, should I use qemu-img to convert from IMG to QCOW2 ?

Not necessarily - the created IMG is format "raw" which is faster but consumes more diskspace and does not offer linked clones and/or snapshots. Decide up to your needs.

Kind regards

Mr.Holmes

 

[Alessandro 123]

When using ZFS, each VM is still 1 file (which format) ?

I don't have a PVE box to try

 

[fabian]

with ZFS, each disk of a VM is one zvol, and each mountpoint of a container is one regular ZFS dataset

 

[Alessandro 123]

Perfect. So, how can I migrate from a VM with raw images (stored somewhere on ZFS) to a native VM with zvol ?

 

[fabian]

Perfect. So, how can I migrate from a VM with raw images (stored somewhere on ZFS) to a native VM with zvol ?

you can use the "move disk" feature to copy the data from storage A to storage B, including a change of format.

 

[Alessandro 123]

Even if the vm is stored on the same zfs?
Is possible to migrate from file to volume by using the same zfs vdev?

 

[fabian]

Even if the vm is stored on the same zfs?
Is possible to migrate from file to volume by using the same zfs vdev?

yes, the source needs to be configured as directory storage, the target as ZFSPool storage. I recommend using different datasets (they can be on the same pool) and only deleting the source files when you are absolutely sure that everything is correct. you can also do it manually with "pvesm alloc" and "qemu-img convert", in which case the VM needs to be offline and the source can be an arbitrary raw image file wherever (no need to configure a storage).