Re: [Xen-users] imaging an existing system?

[Brian Krusic <brian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Miles,

This util simply creates a VM and doesn't incorporate any PVM kernels  
into your VM.
So basically use it to only create HVMs and then if needed like I  
have, convert the HVM to a PVM.
I actually prefer having control over the HVM to PVM process.

Not sure if I'm using the terminology correctly but;

HVM - hardware virtual machine.
PVM - para virtual machine.

- Brian




On Feb 16, 2009, at 6:23 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:

> Brian,
>
> Whoa... that's cool.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure my target machine  
> is going to support the VT extensions.  Why the requirement?
> Thanks,
>
> Miles
>
> Brian Krusic wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Well, a slightly less elegant solution but one I've done several  
> > times is to boot the machine you want to turn into a VM using this  
> > CD;
> > http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-p2v/
> >
> > But the caveat is that you must first have a Xen dom0 on a machine  
> > supporting Intel VT or AMD V extensions.  That machine must have  
> > SSH open as well.
> > Summary of what happens;
> >
> > 1 - Boot the p2v CD.
> > 2 - Answer several self guided questions.
> > 3 - An image of the entire disk is created over the net via SSH on  
> > your VT/V enabled dom0.
> > The down side is that the domU image file is the same size as the  
> > entire source disk.  What I've done since is to create a new HVM  
> > domU where not all the image is allocated (a sparse file) and then  
> > kpartx/lomount/mount the original HVM and new HVM and then dump |  
> > restore from the original HVM to the new HVM.
> > This may seem a little Polish to some of you, but hey, I am 1/4  
> > Polak :)
> > - Brian
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Feb 16, 2009, at 2:15 PM, Thomas Halinka wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Miles,
> > >
> > > Am Montag, den 16.02.2009, 16:47 -0500 schrieb Miles Fidelman:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I have an old server, running Debian Sarge.  I'm getting ready to
> > > > migrate to a new machine - more horsepower, newer version of  
> > > > Debian, etc.
> > > Good plan ;-)
> > >
> > > > As an interim step to migrating all of my production stuff, it sure
> > > > would be nice to generate a snapshot of the current system, turn  
> > > > it into
> > > > an image file, and get it running on the new box, as a VM.
> > > >
> > > > Any suggestions as to procedures and tools for imaging an  
> > > > existing system?
> > > First boot up your old-system into rescue-mode (use knoppix, grml,
> > > whatever) to get a consitent system....
> > >
> > >
> > > Steps in dom0:
> > > #################
> > >
> > > create an empty image file on dom0
> > >
> > >  dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/images/sarge-disk bs=1M count=5000
> > >
> > > ---> creates a 5GB-Disk
> > >
> > > Format it
> > >
> > >  mkfs.ext3 /path/to/images/sarge-disk
> > >
> > >
> > > Mount it
> > >
> > >  mount -o loop /path/to/images/sarge-disk /mnt
> > >
> > >
> > > Copy your data into it
> > >
> > >  rsync -avzH --numeric-ids -e ssh root@old-system:/* /mnt/
> > >
> > > umount && create domu.cfg
> > >
> > >  umount /mnt && cd /etc/xen && cp $extisting-domu.cfg sarge.cfg
> > >  vim sarge.cfg
> > >
> > >
> > > > Thanks much,
> > > >
> > > > Miles Fidelman
> > >
> > > hth,
> > >
> > > Thomas
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Xen-users mailing list
> > > Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
> --
> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
> In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra
>
>
>
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