June 18, 201511 yr I am currently running V5.0.5 withing eSXI 5.5 and now that V6 went stable I want to move my windows 8.1 VM to KVM with very minimal downtime. I currently have a TV tuner that is passed through to my windows VM but I will not be using that tuner when I switch as I will be using network tuners. So when I make the switch there will not be anything that I need to pass through to the VM. What would be the best way to move over with the minimizing downtime. Has anybody successfully converted a windows 8.1 eSXI VM to a format that KVM can use? Could I create a KVM VM that will run within my unRAID VM untill I have everything setup and then just shut down and restart with unRAID being the main OS instead of eSXI. I will be RDPing into my windows VM so I do not need a graphics card or any other hardware passed through.
June 18, 201511 yr Should be able to convert the vdisk from vmdk to raw on unRAID. Go to the manual (in my signature) and follow the process for converting a physical to virtual disk for windows. When you get to using the qemu-img convert command, you'll need to use this command: qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw win81.vmdk win81.img The rest of the procedure should be identical, but I have not personally tested this yet.
June 18, 201511 yr Author Should be able to convert the vdisk from vmdk to raw on unRAID. Go to the manual (in my signature) and follow the process for converting a physical to virtual disk for windows. When you get to using the qemu-img convert command, you'll need to use this command: qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw win81.vmdk win81.img The rest of the procedure should be identical, but I have not personally tested this yet. So I would replace win81.vmdk with whatever my .vmdk is named. Where would I copy my .vmdk onto my unRAID in order to to run this command?
June 19, 201511 yr Author Where would I copy my .vmdk onto my unRAID in order to to run this command?
June 19, 201511 yr Where would I copy my .vmdk onto my unRAID in order to to run this command? You should create a share on unRAID called domains or vdisks (the name doesn't matter). Create a folder in the share for the VM. Put the vmdk in that folder and run the command from there as well.
June 19, 201511 yr Author Where would I copy my .vmdk onto my unRAID in order to to run this command? You should create a share on unRAID called domains or vdisks (the name doesn't matter). Create a folder in the share for the VM. Put the vmdk in that folder and run the command from there as well. Thank you
June 20, 201511 yr Author I converted the VMDK but windows will not boot. I get the windows logo and then I get the get to a light blue screen where you can troubleshoot. When I select refresh I get the drive where windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again. Has anybody figured out how to solve this?
June 21, 201511 yr Author I tried it again and it is still not working but I am not getting the blue screen. It looks like windows gets past the windows logo with the spinning balls and then goes to a blank screen. Here is my XML <domain type='kvm' id='15'> <name>Windows 8.1</name> <uuid>69feda8f-c50c-040d-5b79-13c1a4d19363</uuid> <metadata> <vmtemplate name="Custom" icon="windows.png" os="windows"/> </metadata> <memory unit='KiB'>8388608</memory> <currentMemory unit='KiB'>8388608</currentMemory> <memoryBacking> <nosharepages/> <locked/> </memoryBacking> <vcpu placement='static'>8</vcpu> <cputune> <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='0'/> <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='1'/> <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='2'/> <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='3'/> <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='4'/> <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='5'/> <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='6'/> <vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='7'/> </cputune> <resource> <partition>/machine</partition> </resource> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-2.3'>hvm</type> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv> <relaxed state='on'/> <vapic state='on'/> <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode='host-passthrough'> <topology sockets='1' cores='8' threads='1'/> </cpu> <clock offset='localtime'> <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/> <timer name='hpet' present='no'/> </clock> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/> <source file='/mnt/user/Virtual Machine ISOs/Windows 8.1 Pro.iso'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/> <readonly/> <boot order='2'/> <alias name='ide0-0-0'/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/> <source file='/mnt/user/Virtual Machine ISOs/virtio-win-0.1.96.iso'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/> <readonly/> <alias name='ide0-0-1'/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/cache/vdisks/Windows 8.1 Pro/win81.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/> <boot order='1'/> <alias name='ide0-1-0'/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/cache/vdisks/Windows 8.1 Pro/vdisk2.img'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdd' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/> </disk> <controller type='usb' index='0'> <alias name='usb0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'> <alias name='pci.0'/> </controller> <controller type='ide' index='0'> <alias name='ide0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/> </controller> <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'> <alias name='virtio-serial0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </controller> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:9f:ee:e7'/> <source bridge='virbr0'/> <target dev='vnet0'/> <model type='virtio'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </serial> <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/0'> <source path='/dev/pts/0'/> <target type='serial' port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </console> <channel type='unix'> <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/Windows 8.1.org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/> <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0' state='disconnected'/> <alias name='channel0'/> <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/> </channel> <input type='tablet' bus='usb'> <alias name='input0'/> </input> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/> <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/> <graphics type='vnc' port='5900' autoport='yes' websocket='5700' listen='0.0.0.0' keymap='en-us'> <listen type='address' address='0.0.0.0'/> </graphics> <video> <model type='vmvga' vram='16384' heads='1'/> <alias name='video0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </video> <memballoon model='virtio'> <alias name='balloon0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/> </memballoon> </devices> </domain>
June 26, 201511 yr Author What step in the procedure did you get to? I finished step 4 and was trying to boot into windows so I can install the drivers. My guess is that the windows install partitions the drive with a recovery partition and maybe converting the vmdk was causing partitions not to be read correctly. I could get windows to boot into the recovery but couldn't get any of the recovery options to work. The best I can do was use the recovery command line and use diskpart to try to view the disk partitions but no disks, partitions, or volumes could be found.
June 26, 201511 yr Two things: 1 - you may have to uninstall any VM ware tools before you convert the vmdk to raw. 2 - what virtio driver version did you download?
June 26, 201511 yr Author Two things: 1 - you may have to uninstall any VM ware tools before you convert the vmdk to raw. 2 - what virtio driver version did you download? 1. I'll have to give that a try. But what would the reason for this? 2. The latest stable version. They worked when I did a fresh install but I was not able to get to the point where I could install them. I am still wanting to convert the vmdk as I am having issues with getting all my previous settings moved over to the new install and converting the vmdk should solve my issues.
June 26, 201511 yr Two things: 1 - you may have to uninstall any VM ware tools before you convert the vmdk to raw. 2 - what virtio driver version did you download? 1. I'll have to give that a try. But what would the reason for this? Same reason the xen folks have to uninstall gplpv drivers. You need to get the VM to using a generic driver set for hardware first otherwise when windows goes to boot for the first time on KVM, its expecting a VM Ware disk device for booting, but your not using VMWare anymore. 2. The latest stable version. They worked when I did a fresh install but I was not able to get to the point where I could install them. I am still wanting to convert the vmdk as I am having issues with getting all my previous settings moved over to the new install and converting the vmdk should solve my issues. Ok, I'm 99% certain uninstalling VM Ware tools, then rebooting in VM Ware once without the tools, shutting down the VM, copying it to your unRAID box, then booting back up following the rest of the documented procedure should work correctly. Please confirm if it does or not.
June 26, 201511 yr Author It may be a couple of days before I can give it a try but I will let you know. It may be a good idea add this to the wiki once we figure it out.
June 26, 201511 yr Exactly why I want to know if it works ;-). If it does, I'll just change the docs for the xen procedure to be generic for multiple VM platforms.
June 26, 201511 yr Author Two things: 1 - you may have to uninstall any VM ware tools before you convert the vmdk to raw. 2 - what virtio driver version did you download? 1. I'll have to give that a try. But what would the reason for this? Same reason the xen folks have to uninstall gplpv drivers. You need to get the VM to using a generic driver set for hardware first otherwise when windows goes to boot for the first time on KVM, its expecting a VM Ware disk device for booting, but your not using VMWare anymore. 2. The latest stable version. They worked when I did a fresh install but I was not able to get to the point where I could install them. I am still wanting to convert the vmdk as I am having issues with getting all my previous settings moved over to the new install and converting the vmdk should solve my issues. Ok, I'm 99% certain uninstalling VM Ware tools, then rebooting in VM Ware once without the tools, shutting down the VM, copying it to your unRAID box, then booting back up following the rest of the documented procedure should work correctly. Please confirm if it does or not. Removing VMWare tools worked. Thanks for the help.
June 27, 201511 yr Two things: 1 - you may have to uninstall any VM ware tools before you convert the vmdk to raw. 2 - what virtio driver version did you download? 1. I'll have to give that a try. But what would the reason for this? Same reason the xen folks have to uninstall gplpv drivers. You need to get the VM to using a generic driver set for hardware first otherwise when windows goes to boot for the first time on KVM, its expecting a VM Ware disk device for booting, but your not using VMWare anymore. 2. The latest stable version. They worked when I did a fresh install but I was not able to get to the point where I could install them. I am still wanting to convert the vmdk as I am having issues with getting all my previous settings moved over to the new install and converting the vmdk should solve my issues. Ok, I'm 99% certain uninstalling VM Ware tools, then rebooting in VM Ware once without the tools, shutting down the VM, copying it to your unRAID box, then booting back up following the rest of the documented procedure should work correctly. Please confirm if it does or not. Removing VMWare tools worked. Thanks for the help. Woo hoo!!! Thanks for confirming!!
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