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Linux support posted: Jan 29, 2007 4:37 PM

Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru
esiebert7625
6,794 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
It's interesting to note the below line in the new Converter FAQ. If anyone has any success using this to migrate physical Linux machines to virtual please share your experience here.

NOTE: Experimental support only is available for Linux-based physical to virtual machine conversions using the Vmware Converter BootCD (cold cloning) if the source physical machine has SCSI disks.

Re: Linux support

1. Feb 1, 2007 2:45 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view Belfast's profile Lurker
Belfast
1 posts since
Feb 1, 2007
Yes I also would be very interested in any success stories.

Re: Linux support

2. Feb 1, 2007 8:33 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view letoatrads's profile Expert
letoatrads
417 posts since
Feb 3, 2006
Also curious if anyone has found a way to add IDE disk support to the boot CD. I've got several Linux boxes running on old desktops that I want to virtualize, and this looks like the way to go.....except I've got IDE controllers.

Re: Linux support

3. Feb 1, 2007 10:50 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view rsteffen's profile Lurker
rsteffen
1 posts since
Oct 25, 2006
I've tried to used the cold clone ISO to virtualize a few Linux machines, and have had zero success. The process gets all the way through the block level copying of the drives, then fails on a post processing step and gives up (deleting the virtual machine in the process).

I've actually had much better luck virtualizing Linux machines by booting the source and target machines with a Knoppix boot disk and using dd and netcat to do a block level copy of the drives.

Re: Linux support

4. Feb 6, 2007 11:40 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view crendall's profile Enthusiast
crendall
33 posts since
May 2, 2005
I have a Linux virtual machine running on VMware Server and I used the BootCD on the VM to convert the VM over to VirtualCenter/ESX Server. It went through the whole process successfully but when I try to start the VM on ESX it can't find the hard drive to boot from. Anyone now how to get this to work?

Re: Linux support

5. Feb 6, 2007 11:44 AM in response to: crendall
Click to view gautam's profile Hot Shot
gautam
334 posts since
Oct 19, 2005
I have a Linux virtual machine running on VMware
Server and I used the BootCD on the VM to convert the
VM over to VirtualCenter/ESX Server. It went through
the whole process successfully but when I try to
start the VM on ESX it can't find the hard drive to
boot from. Anyone now how to get this to work?

Did you select volumes or did you choose "import all disks and maintain size?"

If you did the former the resulting machine is unlikely to boot, but the latter has a better chance...

Re: Linux support

6. Feb 7, 2007 7:05 AM in response to: gautam
Click to view crendall's profile Enthusiast
crendall
33 posts since
May 2, 2005
I went back it tried the convert again and I made sure I selected "import all disk and maintain size" and everything went well again except when I turn on the VM. This time it starts to boot normally and it gets a little ways into the boot process and then it looks like it displays everything that is in the /dev directory and then the cursor just sits there and blinks and the VM doesn't finish booting up.

Re: Linux support

7. Feb 7, 2007 8:33 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru
esiebert7625
6,794 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
I'm about to try migrating some Suse 9 servers that are running on ancient Compaq Proliant 1500 hardware. I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: Linux support

8. Feb 13, 2007 6:17 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view mikevanhoff's profile Lurker
mikevanhoff
1 posts since
Feb 13, 2007
Have you had any luck converting the Suse 9 servers ?

Re: Linux support

9. Feb 13, 2007 1:35 PM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru
esiebert7625
6,794 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
No luck so far. I tried to convert a old Compaq Proliant P1600R server running Suse 9.3. When I booted off the Convert CD it loaded and when it got to the NIC configuration it said it could not find any NIC's. There are 5 NIC's in that server, 1 built-in, a old dual-port Netelligent 10/100 and 2 3COM 10/100. I'm not sure why it could not see the NIC's I thought Converter was suppose to support even more hardware then P2V.

So on a whim I booted from the P2V CD. It saw the drives and all 5 NIC's just fine. The helper VM was able to connect and saw the hard drives but would not let me convert them because they were formatted (Unknown), probably because they are EXT3 and it could not read them.

So that brings me back to using Converter, why would it not see the NIC's in the server?

Re: Linux support

10. Feb 13, 2007 2:58 PM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view pangchen's profile Virtuoso
pangchen
2,059 posts since
Nov 15, 2004
The cold clone Boot CD is based on WinPE; the old P2V Assistant Boot CD was based on Knoppix.

You may need to use peTool to add your NICs to your cold clone Boot CD.

Re: Linux support

11. Feb 13, 2007 3:22 PM in response to: pangchen
Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru
esiebert7625
6,794 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
I'll try that, is there any detailed documentation on this tool. The converter manual only has one page that covers petool and it is pretty vague.

Re: Linux support

12. Feb 13, 2007 3:25 PM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view pangchen's profile Virtuoso
pangchen
2,059 posts since
Nov 15, 2004
Run this command in a cmd window in Windows:
petool -i <conv_boot_cd.iso> -n <nic_driver_folder_path>

Re: Linux support

13. Feb 14, 2007 4:40 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view LeoL's profile Hot Shot
LeoL
283 posts since
May 7, 2004
I have successfully created several VMs from Linux machines using The System Rescue CD (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page)
Boot with the CD plug in an external USB drive, Use the PartImage tool to created an Image.

Create a new Virtual Machine, Boot with System Rescue Disk, Run PartImame to restore the image.

Reboot - Done

Works for me.

Re: Linux support

14. Feb 14, 2007 9:19 AM in response to: esiebert7625
Click to view esiebert7625's profile Guru
esiebert7625
6,794 posts since
Oct 23, 2006
I added all the Compaq NIC drivers I could find on the Proliant 1600R support page to the iso using petool and re-burned it and it would still not find the NIC. I'm almost positive I have the write drivers, I added the Netflx3, the n100nt5 and n1000nt5 drivers. I extracted all the files from the Compaq downloads put them all in one directory and included that directory in my petool -n command. But still no luck when it boots. These Compaq drivers were widely used years ago, it's frustrating that they were not included in the original Converter ISO.
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