4 ms·

Anyone know if there are good tools for migrating a VMware .vmx and accompanying files to a QEMU machine? Or is this more complicated than I imagine? I'd like t

by awda 12y ago

Anyone know if there are good tools for migrating a VMware .vmx and accompanying files to a QEMU machine? Or is this more complicated than I imagine? I'd like to ditch the VMware crap modules that break with every kernel upgrade in favor of KVM.

ams6110 12y ago
qemu-img convert http://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/content/ch_converting.html http://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/content/ch_converting....
- awda 12y ago
  Ok, that gets me the disk image :). What about configuration?
  - vegardx 12y ago
    Ovfconverter should be able to go both ways and translate the configuration to and from what you want. Naturally there are some limitations, as not all hypervisors support what other hypervisors support, visa versa. https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/
mgiampapa 12y ago
KVM can work with VMware vmdk-flat files natively without conversion. Just make sure you have the drivers and kernel support for KVM installed beforehand and you don't even need to convert them.
- awda 12y ago
  Ok, but what about everything else in a .vmx (memory configuration, network configuration, serial device configuration)?
palebluedot 12y ago
You can try using virt-tools (e.g. libvirt, virt-v2v). I think virt-v2v may do what you want: https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Virtualization/3.2/html-single/V2V_Guide/index.html#subsect-convert-a-esx-guest https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_E...
karlmdavis 12y ago
I did just that when I switched my server from ESXi (which used the same formats). For me, the vmware2libvirt command from Ubuntu's virt-goodies package did the trick. I documented my transition in some of the sections on this page: https://justdavis.com/karl/it/davis/servers/eddings/vms.html https://justdavis.com/karl/it/davis/servers/eddings/vms.html
- awda 12y ago
  Thanks, this looks very helpful.
- awda 12y ago
  Thanks, this was very helpful. Here's what I did (converting VMware Workstation VM): 1) Followed rwmj's guide to setting up a br0 device for libvirt in Fedora. 2) Deleted all vmware snapshots. sync. sync. 3) Grabbed vmware2libvirt from Ubuntu (it's just a standalone python script) and used it with --bridge br0 -f foo.vmx > foo.xml. 4) Converted my vmdk to raw with qemu-img, moved it to /var/lib/libvirtd per your instructions 5) Edited my xml to point to the right disk, use the qemu/raw driver, use the right path for kvm (/urs/bin/qemu-kvm on Fedora). 6) Import into libvirt with virsh define foo.xml 7) virsh start foo It just works! Great. And virt-viewer over qemu+ssh is great; I run this VM on a headless box on the LAN from my desktop.
  - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
    Helpful, thanks. But I'm reminded of my brother's email about how simple it was to create a Linux kernel for a tv-controller - 3 pages of build instructions, ending with "So easy!" What is it about Linux folks ...

by awda 12y ago

ams6110 12y ago

qemu-img convert http://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/content/ch_converting.html http://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/content/ch_converting....

awda 12y ago
Ok, that gets me the disk image :). What about configuration?
- vegardx 12y ago
  Ovfconverter should be able to go both ways and translate the configuration to and from what you want. Naturally there are some limitations, as not all hypervisors support what other hypervisors support, visa versa. https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/ https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/

mgiampapa 12y ago

KVM can work with VMware vmdk-flat files natively without conversion. Just make sure you have the drivers and kernel support for KVM installed beforehand and you don't even need to convert them.

awda 12y ago
Ok, but what about everything else in a .vmx (memory configuration, network configuration, serial device configuration)?

palebluedot 12y ago

You can try using virt-tools (e.g. libvirt, virt-v2v). I think virt-v2v may do what you want: https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Virtualization/3.2/html-single/V2V_Guide/index.html#subsect-convert-a-esx-guest https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_E...

karlmdavis 12y ago

I did just that when I switched my server from ESXi (which used the same formats). For me, the vmware2libvirt command from Ubuntu's virt-goodies package did the trick. I documented my transition in some of the sections on this page: https://justdavis.com/karl/it/davis/servers/eddings/vms.html https://justdavis.com/karl/it/davis/servers/eddings/vms.html

awda 12y ago
Thanks, this looks very helpful.
awda 12y ago
Thanks, this was very helpful. Here's what I did (converting VMware Workstation VM): 1) Followed rwmj's guide to setting up a br0 device for libvirt in Fedora. 2) Deleted all vmware snapshots. sync. sync. 3) Grabbed vmware2libvirt from Ubuntu (it's just a standalone python script) and used it with --bridge br0 -f foo.vmx > foo.xml. 4) Converted my vmdk to raw with qemu-img, moved it to /var/lib/libvirtd per your instructions 5) Edited my xml to point to the right disk, use the qemu/raw driver, use the right path for kvm (/urs/bin/qemu-kvm on Fedora). 6) Import into libvirt with virsh define foo.xml 7) virsh start foo It just works! Great. And virt-viewer over qemu+ssh is great; I run this VM on a headless box on the LAN from my desktop.
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Helpful, thanks. But I'm reminded of my brother's email about how simple it was to create a Linux kernel for a tv-controller - 3 pages of build instructions, ending with "So easy!" What is it about Linux folks ...