Re: [Xen-users] Convert CentOS system to Xen image?

[Tiago Cruz <tiagocruz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello guys,

Just my 2 cents:

On Thu, 2008-04-03 at 11:30 +0300, Igor Chubin wrote:

> So, it's better, may be, to do not raw copying in your case, 
> but files copying.

James, I've had did a lot of migrations using one machine real into one
virtual (also called "p2v") "at hot" -- without shutdown the machine.

If you can turn off the physical machine, please, considere to use one
tool to automatize your migration, like this one:
http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-p2v/


Whatever, I know this ways to do this work "by hand":

1-) Cloning the device using dd+nc
2-) Coping all "/" using rsync

For this second way, I recommend this read:
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenManualPtoVProcess

And I can say one example of "rsync" with a lot of parameters:

rsync -vaH --numeric-ids --stats --progress --exclude "/mnt/*" \
--exclude "/proc/*" --exclude "/sys/*" --exclude "/tmp/*" \
--exclude "/var/tmp/*" --exclude "/var/run/*.pid" \
--exclude "/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket"\
rsync://192.168.1.123/p2v/ /mnt/vmname/

http://wiki.xen-br.org/index.php?title=P2v-howto

But, in both wais, you can have boot problems with LiLo/Grub, and with
different devices (ex: /dev/ida/c0d0p1 -> /dev/hda1).

So, i think that the easier way to do this, its the follow:

- Install one new CentOS inside Xen, using Virt-Manager with sufficient
space to do the migration;
- Boot this one, test, and lean how to start and stop this virtual
machine;
- Backup this machine;
- Just "rsync" all "/" from the physical one for inside of "/" of
virtual one;
- Restore your backup from /etc/hosts, /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab/
ifcfg-eth-x, lilo.conf, menu.lst and be happy :-)

May the Force be with you!

-- 
Tiago Cruz
http://everlinux.com
Linux User #282636



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