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3,951 Views 2 Replies Last post: Mar 24, 2009 12:57 PM by itpayz RSS
itpayz Lurker
itpayz
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Jan 10, 2008
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Mar 19, 2009 8:47 AM

importing Amazon EC2 xen images to ESX

in order to bring cloud images in-house for testing, I'm trying to convert amazon's ec2 (xen) images to our ESX server

 

This is what i've done so far

-unbundled an amazon image into raw format

-converted the raw format into vmdk

qemu-img convert -f raw rawimage.fs -O vmdk image_converted.vmdk

 

-i verified the output

file image_converted.vmdk

image_converted.vmdk: setgid sticky VMware4 disk image

 

I re-created manually my vmx file

(see attached)

 

I'm using vCenter Converter Standalone Client version (4.0.0) to convert the machine to ESX 3.5 and its failing with

Error: Failed to clone disk 0 on the virtual machine

FAILED: agent.internal.fault.NfcConnectionFault.summary

 

does anyone see anything wrong with this approach? or can give me some insight onto what the error means?

Attachments:
Tags: xen
Texiwill Guru User Moderators vExpert
Texiwill
11,346 posts since
Jan 13, 2004
Currently Being Moderated
1. Mar 20, 2009 11:04 AM in response to: itpayz
Re: importing Amazon EC2 xen images to ESX

Hello,

 

That is what I did. However, I would verify that the Xen image actually boots. I would also use vmplayer and verify the VMDK as well.

 


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

itpayz Lurker
itpayz
2 posts since
Jan 10, 2008
Currently Being Moderated
2. Mar 24, 2009 12:57 PM in response to: Texiwill
Re: importing Amazon EC2 xen images to ESX

 

For those interested in the following hack

 

 

-this is what i did

 

 

1. unbundle your AMI into raw image format

 

 

ec2-unbundle -m yourimage.manifest.xml -k /root/.ec2/pk-yourkey.pem

 

 

2. convert it using qemu to vmware 4 workstation format

 

 

qemu-img convert -f raw youimage.fs -O vmdk yourimage_converted.vmdk

 

 

3. convert it so ESX can understand it

 

 

vmware-vdiskmanager -h yourESXhost -u root -f password.txt -r yourimage_converted.vmdk -t 4 "[VOLUMENAME]/pathtoyourvm/yourimage_converted.vmdk"

 

 

 

 

 

What I did to get my image to boot ... here comes the hack stuff 

 

 

1. install the same guest os

 

 

2. add the converted disk

 

 

3. edit fstab so that the guess OS can see the converted disk (reboot)

 

 

4. edit the fstab file on the converted disk and update the first entry so it boots from the new added disk

 

 

5. edit grub.conf and another entry so the kernel boots from the new added disk

 

 

6. copy over contents of /lib/modules over to new added disk under /lib/modules 

 

 

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