P2V Linux over WAN

[Tymbow]

I've not had to P2V a Linux box before (or much else) so please be kind.

Situation: I need to P2V a Linux Box (Red Hat) to a local ESXi 5 host. The problem is, I am remote to both boxes and the only connectivity available is a moderately slow VPN (a few Mbps at best).

I was planning to just use vCentre Standalone Converter as usual but my understanding of this is that the P2V process will run from Linux box across the VPN to my local converter then back across the VPN to the ESXi box; obviously this will likely fail due to connection reliability/bandwidth limitations.

Is this correct or is my understanding wrong? I had hoped that the Linux box would talk directly to the ESXi host once the conversion job was running but it doesn’t seem to work this way from what I've seen so far.

Any help or recommendations for a better way to do this much appreciated.

[continuum]

You could add a USB-drive to that machine and then use a LinuxLiveCD to create a full dd-image.

That dd-image could then be used as a vmdk later.

problem with this approach: you have to do the patching manually later

[Sreejesh_D]

To avoid data corruption during conversion in a slow network try the following.

if you have a windows machine on same site where Linux host located then install converter on it and convert linux host to "Workstation or other VM" file format. Then Copy this vmdk to the ESXi and register it.

[ivivanov]

Linux P2V cannot be done to Workstation format - only to ESX/vCenter as destination.

[ivivanov · Accepted solution]

When you do Linux P2V Converter Server creates the destination VM on the ESX, then powers it on, attaches a bootable ISO image to it and instructs the VM to boot from the CD. It has a special Converter service (Helper service) that carries out the rest of the conversion process. Once the helper service is started it establishes an SSH session to the source machine and transfers the data. The traffic is not routed through the Converter Server machine. If it is not working - what is the error you are getting? You should be able to SSH from the network where the target VM is created to the source server.

[Tymbow]

Ahh that's what I needed to know. I'll try it out tommorrow. Thanks for the help.