Linux P2V - Esxi5

[NetRock6]

Hi,

Using Vmware converter i have converted a physical linux (Fedora) to VMWare. After conversion  the physical disk is only read only file system and can not write on the disk. Can not create directories....getting error: read only file system. I was wondering if someone can help.

Thanks.

[cyclooctane]

Hi NetRock6

I recall having an issue similer to this while attempting to P2V Centos 5 VMs as part of a migration.

The problem was that the converter was changing the UUID of the root partition.

Centos (I do not know about fedora) by default uses the UUID of the disk in the /etc/fstab

Hence when the system was started it could not find the root partion, and if it did find it, it was mounted read only.

My suggestions would be.

Try checking the /etc/fstab and ensure that the path to the root partition is correct

Run an OFF LINE fsck on the drive. (please DO NOT DO THIS on a mounted drive it WILL distroy the file system)

Check the LVM configuration, fedora has used LVM as the default setup for a while now, and I have seen problems for UUID changes with LVM before.

See if you can boot the system using a live CD and mount the file system from there, this will tell you if it is a corruption in the file system.

I am happy to try and help you though this, although at work we gave up and scratch built the VMs, and there was about 10 of them :smileysad:

Regards

Cyclooctane

[NetRock6]

Thank you cyclooctane  for your reply. I will check and let you know. I appreciate your kind offer regarding your help on this matter. Lucky i was able to loging after several reboot. Before the prompt to loging, the screen was rolling up because was not able to write to disk. it looked like compling a program. kept complianing about the read only system file!!! well, hope that would solve the issue. By the way, may i know the reason why you have gave up on the 10 VM`s at work. Because i just started it and wondering if there are some limitions in that.

Thank you for your time.

[NetRock6]

Hi cyclooctane,

the fstab was different from the physical machine, so i simple copy the one from the physical machine to the VM. but that did not solve the problem.

Next, i did fdisk -l and notice my partition table is different between Physical and VM. in Physical i have from sda1to sda6 but in VM only sda1and sda2 and sda3 which is the swap.

So what do you think i should do. do i have to replace mtab....etc.

A quick prompt would highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[cyclooctane]

Just a question, on the physical machine where were sda4 to sda6 mounted.

Since it seems that these partitions may not have been copied.

What I would do is.

Try and work out what partition (sda1 or sda2) is the root partition.

Make sure that this is what was set in /etc/fstab

If you have a separate boot partition then ensure that this is set in /etc/fstab as well

If the root partition is an LVM, then I will need to do some more work to find a work around.

I will try and replicate your problem this afternoon and get back to you.

Regards

Cyclooctane

[NetRock6]

Hi,

Sda4 - 6 not mounted. i have no LVM.

I am trying to see if:

# mount -o remount,rw

Would work. things just do not make anymore sence.

[cyclooctane]

Do you know what verson of fedora you are running.

I would like to setup a test when I try to P2V a system that is the same verson as the one you are working on.

If all else fails :smileysad: it may call for a rebuild of the fedora system. Like I had to do with our centos systems. However if it is a large complex system then this may be out of the question.

By the way, did the

# mount -o remount,rw

fix anything.

Would it be possible to post some of the errors that you are getting on boot as well?

Regards

Cyclooctane