unable to convert Linux physical machine to vitual machine

[Nukleus2014]

Hello,

I'm trying to create a virtual Linux machine out of a running Linux physical machine by using VMware vCenter Converter standalone 6.2.0.

VMware vCenter Converter standalone runs under a virtual Windows10 machine, which runs under VMware Workstation Pro version 16.1.0, which runs under OpenSuse Leap 15.2, which is the physical machine to be converted.

if I start vCenter Converter standalone, I add the ip-address of the machine to be converted and finally the conversion fails with the message: "there is no boot directory mounted on the source machine". 

I am a little bit confused, because openSUSE mounts /boot/efi as a separate partition. /boot itself however is not mounted indeed. So far I had several tries to overcome the problem, which failed all.
I last added the line
                            /boot /boot none bind 0 0
into fstab. After doing so, openSuse starts without complaints, the command "ls /boot" shows the right contents of /boot and the command mount shows the line
                          /dev/nvme0n1p2 on /boot type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)

So my question is: What precisely VMware Converter Standalone checks right before the error message given above? Are there any specialities on the file system of that /boot Partition?

I am the administrator of the Linux system, so I can access all files. I would appreciate some help.

 

 

 

 

[saldon]

If I'm understanding you setup correctly, you are trying to convert a Linux machine that is currently running the Windows vm you are running vCenter Converter Standalone. This is not possible. The machine you are running vCenter Converter on has to be totally separate from the machine you are trying to P2V.

[Nukleus2014]

Tom,

thanks for your comment. It may happen, that your issue would pop up at a later stage of the conversion I am going to do. However: Even if I start the conversion from a system completely separated from my Linux-System, I get the error-message "There is no /boot directory on the source machine".

I think I have to solve that problem first. 

[Nukleus2014]

Meanwhile I created a small new partition on the system to be converted, copied all files from /boot to that new partition (while preserving access rights), corrected fstab accordingly (meaning: an own /boot-partition definitely exists by now), called mkinitrd (as I still don't know, what vmware converter really checks, just in case it checks the init ram filesystem).

Result: Linux still boots without any complaints and vmware converter still refuses to continue conversion with the message "there is no /boot directory mounted  on the source system".

[saldon]

So over the years I've done numerous P2V on both Windows and Linux. I've found that vConvert is just not a 100% solution. This is not to say anything bad about the tool. When it works its awesome. It's impossible for VMware to create a tool that can P2V everything.

I've always had a particularly hard time getting vConvert to P2V OpenSUSE. Your best approach my be to not use vConvert and instead do it the "old fashion" way. Create a new VM and install OpenSUSE on it. This will be your chance to make the hard drive larger if you want. Once that is running, go to the old machine, tar up the contents of the hard drive, move the tar file over to the new machine and extract it. For those readers that are a little less Linux savvy do these steps:

1. Login into the console of the old machine as root

2. Check that you have enough space somewhere on the file system to store a file that is almost the same size as the total amount of disk space you are using. The amount of space you are using can be determined with either the du command or the df command. Once you find a location make a sub-directory call "backup".

3. Switch to single user mode

# init s

4. Tar up everything except /sys /boot /dev /proc /run /etc/fstab /backup (where /backup is the spot you chose in step 2 to save your tar file) Note: Do not forget the trailing dot on this command.

tar zcpvf /backups/fullbackup.tar.gz --directory=/ --exclude=proc --exlude=dev --exclude=sys --exclude=boot --exclude=run --exclude=etc/fstab --exclude=backups .

5. Once this completes copy the tar file over to the root directory your new machine

6. Take a snapshot of your new machine. This way if things go wrong you can revert to the snapshot and try again.

7. Extract the tarball on your new machine

tar -zxvpf /fullbackup.tar.gz

8. Reboot the new machine and verify it is working

9. Once you are happy with the new machine, delete the snapshot you took in step 6. It could be quite large at this point.

[Nukleus2014]

Probably you are right.

I thought somebody would be able to tell me, exactly what vConvert is checking before issuing the error message. In that case i would have adjusted my openSuse accordingly.

But its most likely the fastest way to create a new virtual machine and install openSUSE into it.

Thanks for your comments based upon your experience. So far I've done some conversions only and only conversions of physical Windows machines.

[Superdome74]