Is there a "VMWare Converter" for Linux?

[jfriesne]

Hi all,

My trusty Linux PC is starting to become a bit crotchety in its old age, so I'm considering replacing it with a Mac Pro (8 cores, ooh!). If I do that, I'd like to take my current Linux environment (SUSE 10) off of the Linux PC and make it a VM to run on the Mac under VMWare Fusion.

If it were Windows I was running on my PC, I would use VMWare Converter to convert my PC's hard drive into a VM. However, it's Linux, and AFAICT VMWare Converter doesn't exist for converting a Linux PC into a VM. Is there some technique I can use here?

Thanks,

Jeremy

ps One other question also: My Linux PC is running dual AMD Opterons, and the Mac Pro would of course be running Intel Xeons. Will the difference in CPUs cause the SUSE Linux VM that I create to not work?

[admin · Accepted solution]

VMWare does not currently provide any form of "full" Linux P2V conversion. I'd hazard a guess that the millions of different iterations of Linux are probably why, especially given the major kernel differences between them (custom compiles, etc). Reconfiguring like we can do with windows Sysprep is significantly more difficult

http://conshell.net/wiki/index.php/Linux_P2V offers a few possible methods to use. VMWare converter will indeed work, however, no post configuration will be done internally, so when you boot the VM, you will have to do any necessary reconfiguration by hand. The Opteron/Xeon switch will depend on how your kernel is compiled. What version are you running at the moment?

[AWo]

You can also try "Criste CBMR for Linux" (http://www.cristie.com). This has worked for me and VMware Workstation and ESX (ok, with this tools the destinations doesn't really matter). This is an desaster recovery tool for Linux (and Windows) where you can change the adapters after restoring all files to the destination volumes and thereby bring the system up and running again on different (virtual) hardware.

In short terms: you get an desaster recovery tool which also is usefull für P2P, P2V and V2P, available for Windows and Linux.

AWo

[glibik]

I have had good success using Acronis TrueImage.

First, make a complete back up of the physical machine you want to virtualise.

Then create a new VM with appropriate disc size(s) and restore to the VM.

On reboot the Linux system should detect the different "hardware" and load the

appropriate modules.

Note:

If you have any third party hardware specific drivers installed on the physical

machine, it may be prudent to uninstall those before making the backup.

In the past, I've found that a kernel compiled for an AMD CPU will run fine on

an Intel CPU, but not vica versa. Regarding multi core processors, there are

a number of others on this forum much more knowledgeable than myself.

[fusebox]

Thats not completely right.Just restoring the image to a blank VM and powering it on wont detect all the hardware and load the modules.Infact,it will have a kernel panic and refuse to boot.This is because,the initrd image which is has still will be pointing to the old hardware and hence it will panic.So,the os will need to be booted off the iso or cd into rescue mode and create a new initrd image using the mkinitrd command.Once that is done,reboot the vm,disconnect the iso/cd and it will now boot properly and load all the modules required for the virtual hardware.