Converting FreeBSD, OpenBSD VMs from VMware Server 2 to ESX 3.5

[drnewman5]

How to convert FreeBSD and OpenBSD guest VMs from VMware Server 2 to ESX 3.5?

AFAIK the VMware vCenter Converter utility is only for Linux and Windows guest VMs. I successfully imported a FreeBSD VM into Workstation 6.5.2, thinking I could convert it from there, but "ESX Server Compatible" is grayed out for all versions (4,5,6,6.5) of Workstation.

Thanks in advance for clues on completing this conversion.

[jbruelasdgo]

you could upload the virtual machine disk to ESX 3.5 datastore

and then use vmkfstools -i to import it

then you could create a VM and when you arrive to the disk screen, select the disk you have imported

regards

Jose Ruelas

[continuum]

Hi

on VMserver 2 use vmware-vdiskmanager to convert the Free-and OpenBSD vmdks to format "monolithicFlat"

Then post the descriptor-files - thats the small vmdk which is only 1-2 kb in size.

If required we then redefine the disks as SCSI.

When that is done - upload the vmdks with FastSCP or Winscp.

If the VMs do not already use SCSI-disks on VMserver a small edit will be sufficient to fix the drivers - see this post.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/218973?tstart=50

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[drnewman5]

Thanks, continuum:

> on VMserver 2 use vmware-vdiskmanager to convert the Free-and OpenBSD vmdks to format "monolithicFlat"

I did not see 'monolithicFlat' as an option in 'vmware-vdiskmanager --help'. Instead I tried:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r Other.vmdk -t 0 anotherDisk.vmdk

Which resulted in a 2G file.

So, 2 questions on this:

1. Is the syntax above correct? If not, what is the right way to convert these?

2. This VM also has multiple 'Other-f00x.vmdk' files. Do I need to run the conversion on each vmdk file?

> Then post the descriptor-files - thats the small vmdk which is only 1-2 kb in size.

> If required we then redefine the disks as SCSI.

> When that is done - upload the vmdks with FastSCP or Winscp.

> If the VMs do not already use SCSI-disks on VMserver a small edit will be sufficient to fix the drivers - see this post.

OK, thanks. Yes, unfortunately the majority of the VMs use IDE and not SCSI. But from your post it sounds like I need to run vmware-vdiskmanager first, and then do the conversion to SCSI. Right?

Thanks again

dn

[continuum]

Hi

the command you used should convert the existing vmdks to a single preallocated vmdk.

This will not work if you store the vmdks on Fat32.

You run the command only against the small vmdk - without special extension like *-f001.vmdk and so on.

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[drnewman5]

Thanks for your reply.

> Then post the descriptor-files - thats the small vmdk which is only 1-2 kb in size.

I reran vmware-vdiskmanager using '-t 3' to create a small initial vmdk file. It's attached.

> If required we then redefine the disks as SCSI.

Yes. The attached vmdk file thinks the ddb.adapterType is 'ide'. What needs changing here, and in the vmx file before getting to the VM's own disk geometry?

thanks again

[continuum]

Hi

I guess you missunderstood - after vmware-vdiskmanager you should then have a file name.vmdk which is a small textfile and a large name-flat.vmdk with the data.

I wanted to look at the name.vmdk then

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[drnewman5]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I have rerun vmware-vdiskmanager with option '-t 4' (for 'preallocated ESX-type virtual disk').

I've pasted the contents of the resulting vmdk file into this message. If this is not what you're looking for please let me know what vmware-vdiskmanager syntax to use.

Thanks again!

1. Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

CID=3d311cfb

parentCID=ffffffff

createType="vmfs"

1. Extent description

RW 16777216 VMFS "anotherDisk2-flat.vmdk" 0

1. The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "7"

ddb.toolsVersion = "0"

ddb.encoding = "UTF-8"

ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 91 b4 ad dc d2-33 84 04 f9 c9 22 77 6b"

ddb.geometry.cylinders = "16383"

ddb.geometry.heads = "16"

ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"

ddb.adapterType = "ide"

[continuum]

ok - that will do.

I edited the file so that you can now upload it to ESX and attach it as lsilogic disk to a new VM.

Best create a new VM from scratch without disk - then uplad the edited two files and add them to the existing VM.

It will not boot fully - instead you must boot into single user mode and do the same changes as suggested in that other post.

Make sure you adjust filenames as necessasry

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[drnewman5]

Make sure you adjust filenames as necessasry

Besides changing the filenames, I also had to change the ddb.virtualHWVersion from 7 to 3 in the vmdk file for the VM to boot.

After that and editing /etc/fstab everything came up fine. Thanks!

Also, a question on your edits: How did you know which cylinder and head values to use? I noticed they differ in your edited version from the original. I've got a bunch of other IDE-based VMs to convert and wonder what values to use.

Thanks VERY much for your help with this!

[continuum]

oops - I hadn't thought of your ESX 3.5 target.

ddb.virtualHWVersion version 4 should do it - do you really need to go as low as #3 ?

About the geometry-values ....

have a look here - i made a table http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk/diskgeometrietable.html

If you have examples with special values - post them and I explain how to calculate them

Ullii

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[drnewman5]

> oops - I hadn't thought of your ESX 3.5 target.

> ddb.virtualHWVersion version 4 should do it - do you really need to go as low as #3 ?

It works fine with a value of 4.

> About the geometry-values ....

> have a look here - i made a table

Excellent resource. Thanks for all your help!