The converter works inside the machine so has no idea about the raid and doesnt care. Top tips for using vmware vcenter converter 4sysops. If the physical machine is a linux virtual machine, vcenter converter will really do not support that configuration, see. How to install centos 7 on vmware workstation and config raid 5 how to install centos 7 on vmware workstation. Vmware have now released converter 4 which has support for p2v conversion of linux systems, but only live conversion using a helper vm which has a number of drawbacks for a start it only. While vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux servers, sometimes you have to use the cold clone boot cd if the physical server uses software raid and then boot vm from the broken mirror side, or sometimes the. I have a vmware esxi 5 running on a server with ssd and two hard drives. Vmware provides several useful unique features and generally offers better support for vms with linux based guest operating systems os. Currently thay are running linux software raid aka mdadm and vmware server. Vmware vcenter converter standalone provides an easytouse solution to automate the process of creating vmware virtual machines from physical machines running windows and linux, other virtual machine formats, and thirdparty image formats. The following steps will be taken to convert existing physical linux server to a virtual image. Raid controllers are not hbashost bus adapters 5, esxi is an operating system. Use mylibrary to build out your own product information stack and share it with colleagues and friends, and always feel free to leave us feedback so we can improve. As mentioned earlier, the vmware hypervisor does not recognize the raid arrays built by the software raid controller also called fake raid.
We have a brand new dell r710 server with 6 x 146 gb sas drives. Some disk partitions dont have a filesystem at all, such as those used for swap, lvm or software raid md. Im only going to be running 23 vm guests most likely 2x win server 2012r2 stds and maybe 1x win7 pro or linux distro for basic addc redundancy and a rds gateway. This guide describes the deployment and configuration process of the starwind virtual san with vmware vsphere.
Oct 04, 2018 by default, audit log would be like below. Aug 12, 2014 5 comments on breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware converter i rarely post supergeeky stuff on here, but since i couldnt find any good instructions to do this important and critical activity on the internet, and my coworkers had to piece together a set of steps that worked for us, i wanted to share what we learned. Lenovo raid management tools and resources lenovo press. In particular, if the source image contains unsupported hardware, you might need to modify the configuration of the destination virtual machine before using it. This raid calculator computes array characteristics given the disk capacity, the number of disks, and the array type. Search through a range of vmware product documentation, kb articles, technical papers, release notes, vmware validated designs, and videos.
I have an esxi with few vms linux windows configured and id like to use vmware converter to create backups. Only thing i had to do with the ssd is tell the host to id the raid 0 drive for the ssd which is a simple thing to do in an esxi host and reboot after that i installed the lsi providers vib so i can remote into the hosts and control the raid without rebooting the host all the time. Vmware converter was and still is very popular free tool for p2v or v2v conversions. As for converter supporting software raid, that is a very complex problem that not a lot of conversion tools dont support. Is it possible to install esxi and create a software raid1 for the esxi datastore. Running the following command from the server console will also convert the virtual disk to a format that esxesxi can understand. This was the first tool i actually started to work with when i first started with datacenter virtualization. May 05, 2017 starwind virtual storage appliance vsa is a linux based virtual machine with vsan from starwind installed and configured.
I appears that with vmware this is probably not a necessary setup. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations. Adding an old softwareraid array to a softwareraid installation boot problems. Would someone be able to tell me the best process for converting the already running linux machine to a virtual machine to be used in esxi.
Storage configuration o raid use a raid configuration that works well for databases. Search through a range of vmware product documentation, kb articles, technical papers, release notes, vmware validated designs, and videos, or use the all products page to browse instead. Start using mylibrary to create, annotate and share topics, kb articles, code samples and more. Windows raid or linux raid are not fake raid, they are software raid as the term implies. You cant get the hba to see you existing data since the ondisk format is different, and even if you could magically do that, then youd be presenting a file system that esxi doesnt support. From previous question i have been told to setup a raid for guestos dont confuse with hardwaresoftware raid foron host. The main thing is that you can install it on any industrystandard hypervisor hyperv, esxi, xen, kvm, which gives you huge choice and flexibility. In order to configure software raid inside of a starwind vsan vm, hba or raid controller must be. I was able to create an image of this server, convert to vhdx and fire up a vm in hyper v, however i am getting boot errors and kernel panic now because its referencing the raid, is there a way to remove it and proceed with boot. The server comes with software lsi megaraid and intel rapid storage raid. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of poweredon linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. Using starwind vsan, the process of deploying vms, providing faulttolerant storage, connecting it to hypervisor, and creating highly available vms becomes a piece o cake. Start discussions with the vmware community directly from any docs topic.
Other than that, no, its not possible to do what you want. For windows nt and 2000 servers, you need to use the msconfig. The admin knew how to set up software raid arrays on linux, but not on. I wasnt able to find any information about this, nor found any option in guestos bios. Apr 21, 2017 if the physical machine is a linux virtual machine, vcenter converter will really do not support that configuration, see.
Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or. How to config software raid 5 install centos 7 on vmware. Converter and software raid linux vmware communities. Click the datacenters getting started tab and click create a cluster. Starwind virtual san for vsphere linux software raid configuration. Jul 22, 2017 converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. I am not able to setup hardware raid atm, and need a workaround. I believe it was redhat linux, and suse for example. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware. If you need to convert thousands of vms, you should use another tool that brings more automation such as double. Before creating datacenter, the vcenter server should be deployed.
Quickly convert physical machines to virtual machines with vmware free p2v converter. If the purpose of the vm is to test a particular software configuration that. Converter is a pretty well made tool for being free. Linux software raid1 md raid onthefly so that vmware converter. Make a vmware copy of a live linux server cedric walter home.
Boots the destination vm from a live linux iso and then. Linux has supported the idea of software raid, particularly raid 1 or disk mirroring for a long time. Even now, many years after physical to virtual p2v conversion in many enterprises has finished, there are systems to convert or reconfigure, as the tool can also optimize and resize disks and their layout. The company supplying the software raid controller and the dedicated controller were the same adaptec.
Disk mirroring is a great way to gain some insurance against a single disk failure bringing down a critical system, as everything rewritten to one disk is also written to the other disk. Connect to the vcenter, select the getting started tab, click on create datacenter, and enter the datacenter name. Gentoo linux wouldnt have been a supported source for vmware converter cold clone. If you added physical disks, you can include all disks into a single raid, or create a separate raid using only the new disks. To speedup the process i decided to create a windows vm on the same esxi host where ive installed windows 7 and vmware converter. Convert physical linux server to vmware starwind blog. If you dont have a good management tool, there is no way to tell for sure unless you look at the controller bios, which will require a reboot.
How to readconvert audit log timestamp in rhel7 linux and. Under physical disks, select the hard disks that you want to include in the virtual disk. I then selected the vmware converter option configure machine, selected the vm that it created, made no changes in the configuration and selected next. Converter and software raid linux vivizihosting oct 7, 2009 5. Physicalraid 1 to virtual using vmware standalone converter. Vmware vsphere and microsoft hyperv are both hardware virtualization platforms, but on some occasions, you might need to convert a hyperv virtual machine vm for use with vmware.
The raid is an abstraction layer outside of the os as long as you are using hardware raid and the raid is truly just a single disk to the os. Mar 06, 2011 run the system configuration utility to disable all unnecessary software services on start. It creates a vmcentric and high performing storage pool for a vmware luster. Linux block size1024 log0 fragment size1024 log0 26104 inodes, 104320 blocks 5216 blocks 5.
I have a physical linux server with two sata drives using software raid. The host has a gigabit card but its currently connected to a 100mb fd port. Top 5 most common vmware compatibility issues and how to. The only other configuration that makes sense is raid5 with one spare, which is a very common outofthebox configuration. The reconfiguration took less then 2 minutes and when it was completed my vm booted fine. Resolving linux boot issues after p2v with vmware converter.
I am doing this setup on my vmware workstation where my box. Vmware converter will work, however any options such as resizing the disks and post migration configuration are greyedout. Vmware new releases and updates vmware doubles down on hybrid clouds with containers. At first, vmware converter 5 is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. Dec 29, 20 vmware converter is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. Linux software raid mdadm, mdraid can be used as an underlying storage device for starwind virtual san devices. A tool in the server firmware that simplifies the process of updating firmware, configuring uefi system settings, configuring raid, and installing microsoft windows or linux operating systems or vmware hypervisors and associated device drivers on a dualsocket 2p thinkserver system. A guide to converting hyperv vms to vmware by nakivo. Vmware converter best practices virtualization blog. The esxi install dialog only shows both disks separate to chose on which to install the hypervisor. So im gonna have to use one of the hdds or raid volumes to install the baremetal os on.
Starwind virtual san for vsphere comes as a prepackaged linux virtual machine to be installed as a vm on vsphere. Unfortunately converter does not support software raid configurations. Im not sure if the following will help you because i dont know anything about the vmware p2v converter, but here goes. Vmware esxi formerly esx is an enterpriseclass, type1 hypervisor developed by vmware for deploying and serving virtual computers. I think a manual approach would be more feasible here. Software raid 5 always missing 1 disk after reboot. Hoping to remain competitive with rivals microsoft and aws, vmware is updating its hybrid cloud platform, marrying cloud products with a number of containerbased technologies. I know and understand that this is not supported by the vmware converter. Vmware vconverter p2v for windows servers experts exchange. Free raid calculator caclulate raid array capacity and. The vmware vcenter converter provides the ability to convert between an existing virtual machine image, a physical pc, or a hard disk image. I had to go on a purchase a storage controller to setup a raid for the hypervisor to install on.
How to install centos 7 on vmware workstation and config raid 5. During cloning of poweredon linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. Now you have successfully configured linux software raid and viewed the raid status using various command. Recommended raid settings for hdd and ssd disks starwind. I have been reading through its documentation though, and found something surprising.
While vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux. If you have a small number of machines to convert, you can use this tool because its free. No ext, zfs, btrfs, or any other linux file system you can think of. Jan 23, 2019 recommended settings for linux software raid with starwind vsan for vsphere. Enterprise software raid never, ever does anything of the sort. Oh, if you dont want to boot the machine but want to do it remotely, then you can certainly use vmware converter. How to setup fake raid for vmware virtual machines. Reference documentation, the vmware vcenter converter standalone api reference guide, which provides languageneutral descriptive information object type definitions, properties, and method signatures, for example for the vmware vcenter converter standalone 6. You cannot present a superblock or anything else native to linux to a vsphere system. Use the hardware raid utility to change the raid configuration. Vmware vcenter converter standalone release notes but, see that workaround. Vmware converter 3 can clone source images containing these operating systems, but the destination virtual machine may or may not work without additional configuration after import. As a type1 hypervisor, esxi is not a software application that is installed on an operating system os.
Starwind virtual san for vsphere linux software raid. How to remove sw raid for vmware converter to work david hrbac. Will a ex software raid 1 disk boot without raid software. Here is what converter does for live linux conversions create the target vm with the required hardware configuration.
It is recommended assigning more vcpus to starwind vm which has linux software raid configured. Esxi itself doesnt support any software raid implementation in any way, shape or form. You can use vmware vcenter converter to convert the disk and import the virtual machine into vsphere. Reasons to run a software raid in a linux server running in vmware. Can vcenter converter standalone be used without an. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware converter truk rambles. Feb 10, 2012 while vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux servers, sometimes you have to use the cold clone boot cd if the physical server uses software raid and then boot vm from the broken mirror side, or sometimes the resulting vm does not boot because of issues with bootloader. Raid drives are listed as unsupported source volumes for all formats. Mar 19, 20 at first, vmware converter 5 is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. How to virtualize this oldish linux server to vmware. Step by step guide to configurecreate software raid 1 mdadm. If you want remove the software raid, use the below methods. How to remove linux software raid1 md raid onthefly so that. If you did not modify storage disks, you can use the raid utility to change the hardware raid level.
Vmware vcenter converter is a free tool that is an indispensable utility for vmware administrators. I need to somehow setup a fakeraid inside virtual machine to keep a copy data on each drive raid0. Are raid disks really universally unsupported for vmware. Vmware vcenter converter standalone is an easy tool that enables you to convert physical servers windows or linux to virtual machines. Supported raid levels are raid 0, raid 1, raid1e, raid 10. I was looking at possibly using clonezilla and it doesnt support software raid in linux either. Nov 01, 2017 vcp6dcv blueprint covers p2v chapter too. Vmware vcenter converter standalone free download vmware vsphere hypervisor esxi iso image includes vmware tools quick overview of the process. This magical piece of this free software can at the same time align properly the destination vms virtual disks in order to get the best possible performance. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. Ip address and credentials for your linux pcserver. I plan to use the vmware converter, rather than the acronis vm recovery.
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