Linux VM Conversion

[McServer]

Hi,

Just a quick question for this one. When setting up the conversion process for a linux VM using 'VMware center converter standalone 5' I noted that there is no option to sync it after conversion. I'm guessing there is something fundamentally different which might explain this and apologize if I should have seen it. My question is why is this? Can it be manually done after conversion or is there no need for conversion? If so, why?

Thank you,

[Ivan Ivanov]

The "architecture" for converting Windows and Linux is totally different. For Windows an Agent is installed on the source, it creates VSS snapshot and installs a changes-tracking driver on the source and performs the cloning.

On the other hand for Linux the cloning process is performed from the "helper" VM which is actually the target VM booted from an ISO image. There is no agent installed on the source, no snapshotting support on the source (except for LVM volumes) and no changes-tracking driver for Linux, so with the current architecture it cannot be implemented.

[McServer]

So in converting a linux VM I must be prepared to loose any changes made during the conversion process?

[Ivan Ivanov]

Unfortunately this is correct.

[Troy_Clavell]

From my understanding , if doing a V2V of a Linux VM, it has to be powered off.  There would be nothing to sync. The "helper" VM gets powered on, but the source needs to remain powered down.

[McServer]

I will give this a try. I actually had run into a complete failure of the VM to convert the last time I tried but wanted to get the question of sync figured out. Perhaps this is why I could not get past 3% conversion. Thank you, I will give this a try later.

[Ivan Ivanov]

This is correct, however Linux V2V does not support reconfiguration on the target and there is a chance the target VM would not boot and the source would be down for all the time the conversion is running. If it is OK to have downtime for the source, it is possible to stop all importaint "changes-generating" services and then perform P2V with reconfiguration. Of course V2V tried as well and if the target boots without reconfiguration - then all is good.

[McServer]

Thank you, I appricate your quick responce. This may not be the place to ask but is there another method of moving / converting the VM that I could look into?

[kjb007]

You can treat the vm as a physical server, and perform the same conversion hot, with the same caveat, that there is no sync option.

I've also had problems with the helper vm not booting when pointing converter to vCenter, as opposed to an ESX host directly.

-KjB

[McServer]

I had tried the conversion process last week with the VM in a powered up state but it failed at 3%. Do you think there is a chance of the conversion working with the VM powered off? I am concerned I may be opening a whole new can of worms as any previous attempt to even setup an offline conversion has thus far failed. 

[Ivan Ivanov]

It depends on the reason for failing... In general performing V2V is much simpler as it basically does just a file copy from the source to the target as opposed to the P2V conversion, which has a lot of moving parts. However keep in mind that it is possible the target VM would not boot because reconfiguration (the part responsible for making the target bootable in a virtual environment) is not supported for Linux V2V conversions.

[kjb007]

Point converter to an ESX host directly, I've had Linux P2V conversions fail early on because the helper vm was not able to boot.

-KjB