[ubuntu] Converting Physical to VM

[Hightower]

So I download the VMWare Converter application and try to convert a Ubuntu box we have. It will only let me convert it to the destination type for ESXi.

 

I need to convert it for use on VMware Server, but this option is not available - yet when I try to convert my local XP machine the option is available....

 

Has anybody done this?

[vikpaw]

which version of vmware server? it only supports certain OS types, so if your ubuntu is a version it doesn't support the option might be hidden.

i recently upgraded from version 2 to 2.2 (or something like that) and it's got better support for host RAM, more OS support and some other changes.

i have an Ubuntu VM on my Mac which uses VMware fusion and that definitely works.

Try creating an Ubuntu VM from scratch on the VMware Server host to prove it is possible.

[Marc]

When ever I've had to P2V a linux machine I found this useful:

 

Personal Backup (VMware) Appliance

 

Get the pba vm and host it, boot source machine using the pba client, image source machine and restore to new vm

Edited December 15, 2009 by Marc

[Gatt]

I am testing this now (Ubuntu 9.10) and it was a nightmare to get the converter to run (Root login over SSH) but it seems be running now (We are using ESXi btw)

 

The only "issue" is that it seems to want to create a Virtual Disk of the size of teh Physical Disk (250GB in our case) and wont allow us to resize it down

[dhicks]

So I download the VMWare Converter application and try to convert a Ubuntu box we have.

 

Whenever I've wanted to convert an Ubuntu machine into a VM I've simply tar-ed up the whole filesystem and un-tar-ed it on a new VM.

 

--

David Hicks

[Hightower]

Whenever I've wanted to convert an Ubuntu machine into a VM I've simply tar-ed up the whole filesystem and un-tar-ed it on a new VM.

 

--

David Hicks

 

And you've not experienced any problems by doing this?

[dhicks]

And you've not experienced any problems by doing this?

 

Nope. Our DansGuardian / Squid box was turned in to a VM, as was our Web / Moodle server, with associated MySQL databases. Both machines just kept on running the same as if they were still physical boxes. They aren't even running the same kernels they originally had as the ones we had available compiled with Xen support were different versions, and they had different filesystems - ext3 instead of ext2. You have to change the fstab entries, probably some boot options in grub.conf, and maybe some metwork settings, but that's about it.

 

--

David Hicks

[danrhodes]

How would I tar up a Censornet Box? bit dumb on Linux!

 

D

[clodhopper]

I'd be a little careful converting a Censornet box to a virtual machine. I know a local college that tried it and couldn't manage the traffic they had. Give the Censornet guy a shout & ask them the best way to do it, I've always found them very helpful.

 

If you look at the Censornet site they have a VMware based virtual appliance now, so they might say it's best to just backup your existing box & restore the backup to the virtual appliance. I've done this for a demo that I did to show how we use CNv4 in college , installed VMPlayer on my laptop & restored a backup from our live system to show whilst off site.

 

Just my two pennies :-)

[dhicks]

How would I tar up a Censornet Box?

 

Can you boot from a CD or USB stick with something like SystemRescueCD? Do you have a network share somewhere where you can dump large-ish (10GB?) files? If so, simply boot your Censornet machine from CD/USB, mount the file share, mount the local disk, and create a tar file containing everything from you local disk:

 

cd /mnt
mkdir local
mkdir network
mount //server/share /mnt/network
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/local
cd local
tar cf /mnt/network/machineImage.tar *

 

--

David Hicks

[reggiep]

So if I have a moodle install running on ubuntu on a physical box could I get that running as a vmware on my windows server 2008?

 

I really have missed the boat when it comes to virtualisation!

[dhicks]

So if I have a moodle install running on ubuntu on a physical box could I get that running as a vmware on my windows server 2008?

 

Yes. You could get your new VM on your Windows server to boot from SystemRescueCD, partition your new VM's harddrive accordingly (or attach multiple virtual harddrives, depends how your current Ubuntu machine is configured) and just un-tar your old files right on to the new server. Don't forget to re-install Grub, too.

 

--

David Hicks