Migrate VM's from XenServer

[SirHaschke]

Hello,

how can i migrate VM's from XenServer  to VMWare ESXi?
VMWare Converter is one option.
Is there another option, maybe an offline conversion for DC's eg.?

Thanks

Dennis

[rcporto]

Best option will be VMware Converter.... but for Domain Controllers, the best option will be create a new VM on vSphere environment, promote to DC, transfer any FSMO from DC running on XenServer to the new DC and demote the old DC... after demote the old DC, if there is any other role on VM, you can do a V2V without problems.

[SirHaschke]

OK. Thanks.

But is it not possible to shut down the dc or any other vms and export it and Import it into my VMware Environment? Whats with Exchange or sql Server?

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

I believe exporting VM from XenServer and import in vSphere will not work due to different virtual disk format... but take a look at solution provided in this blog post: Did You Restart?: Convert XenServer XVA to VMDK for VMWare ESXi 5.1

About V2V, just read the VMware Converter best practices and everything should works: VMware KB: Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter

[SirHaschke]

This is another good solution = http://didyourestart.blogspot.com.br/2013/03/convert-xenserver-xva-to-vmdk-for.html e. g. for some Linux or other appliances thats running under XenServer.

I read the VMWare best pratices  (good articel) and i migrated 3 VM's (Windows) from XenServer to my ESXi infrastructure succesfully.

I see in the VMWare converter that i can migrate Acronis (*.tib) images. Another solution is to create an offline image with Acronis and import it into VMware.....

Thanks for your help.

Dennis

[lazygh0st]

I have found a successful and fast way to migrate from Xenserver to Vmware. Yes, Xenserver is a turd and it's real pain in the ass to migrate VMs from it. No other way worked for me.

Fastest way to migrate Xenserver VM to ESXi(i tried with Xen 7.2 to VMware 6.0 U3):

Note IP address of VM because when you remove XS tools the IP configuration will not move on new adapter.

Uninstall Xenserver tools

Remove in Device manager Xen PV Bus, it remove all other Xen hidden devices. Double check if there are no hidden devices View>Show Hidden Devices. Check Disk, Network Adapter)

delete all xen*.sys in C:\Windows\System32\drivers - 9 files by default. Differ between OS.

delete all xen*.dll in C:\Windows\System32\ - 19 files by default. Differ between OS.

Shutdown VM

Export VM using CMD and not the GUI because you can export without using SSL encryption, it's lot faster. You can export in only in XVA format from cmd though, but it's still faster to export in XVA and convert to OVF.  Once you run command you can see the VM icon becomes yellow and you can see export progress in Xencenter notifications.

go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\XenCenter and open cmd in that location. Run command:

xe.exe -s <xenserver_ip> -u root -pw <passwpod> vm-export vm="<name_of_vm_case_sensitive>" filename=C:\Export\<name_of_vm>.xva --nossl

Once export finishes you need to convert the xva appliance file to OVG.

Download and Install XenConvert (Xenconvert is depricated and you cannot download it from Citrix. Don't download 2.4.1 version. It doesn't have an option to convert XVA to OVF or any other option to convert vdisk file. Download 2.3.2 version. Here is the download link -http://downloadns.citrix.com.edgesuite.net/akdlm/5322/XenConvert_Install_x64.exe)

Run Xenconvert choose -  From - Xenserver virtual appliance,To - open virtualization format ovf

Once conversion finishes rename vhd files to proper vm name, because it will called ref**.vhd.

You cannot import OVF into VMware because it will show some kind of XML error. You have convert OVF to VMDK.

Download and Install Starwind V2V converter latest version and run it(you need to register with legit email. They will send you download link in email):

Run Starwind. Source image location - local file> choose VHD file >choose VMware ESX server image and run conversion

After it finishes it will create two files *.VMDK and *-flat.VMDK. Create new folder in datastore, copy both files there and wait till VMware finishes combining both files.

Create new VM and choose existing disk, find your VMDK file in datastore and you are done.

Win2012 will boot straight away.

For Win2008(this works for both Win2008 and WIn2008r2) you need to do these extra steps because VM will go in BSOD because it's laking SCSI driver(once you remove XS tools you will see in Device Manager that it's missing SCSI controller driver. You cannot install VMware scsi driver on source machine because it's not compatible). Forget about other solutions like loading hive and changing services which to start. It doesn't work anymore. It will still go in BSOD.

Enable SSH server on ESXi host

connect via putty to ESXI host which hosts the Win2008 VM

go to /vmfs/volumes/<name of datastore>/<nameofWindows2008VM>

open with vi editor -  <nameofWindows2008VM>.vmdk

change adapter type to - ddb.adapterType = "ide"

Edit VM settings from vsphere client, remove harddisk with option Remove from Virtual machine and then press Add> Harddisk and and this time it show that it will add IDE controller, choose IDE address(0:0) and add SCSI CD/DVD on SCSI address (0:1).

You are done(You can do it while you are creating new VM, just choose option Edit VM settings before finish).win2008 will successfully boot.

Boot VM and check if Device Manager has installed LSI adapter driver.

Shutdown VM

connect via putty to ESXI host which hosts the Win2008 VM

go to /vmfs/volumes/<name of datastore>/<nameofWindows2008r2VM>

open with vi editor -  <nameofWindows2008r2VM>.vmdk

change adapter type back to - ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

Open Edit VM settings from vsphere client, remove harddisk with option Remove from virtual machine again and then  Add Harddisk. Now it will show SCSI controller, choose SCSI address(0:0). Then Remove CD/DVD which previously added and press ok.

win2018 VM will now boot with LSILOGIC SCSI driver.

Good luck!