Re: [Libguestfs] Virtualbox vdi Input Format and man pages
On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 08:38:31AM -0600, stef204 wrote:
Hi,
I am new to v2v/libguestfs.
I need to convert a 30 GB virtual machine running Windows7 64 bit (a
guest on a Linux system) from Virtualbox vdi format to qcow2 (or
raw/img--another debate in itself) so I can use libvirt/qemu/kvm to
run it and completely migrate away from Virtualbox.
The vdi machine is a mission critical production environment and I
cannot afford to mess it up, etc. Will keep original vdi intact
until have successfully converted and tested.
This is very good advice.
I have done some research and come upon v2v which seems to be just
what the doctor ordered except that, in "local" man pages of version
1.36.4 which I have installed, there is NO mention of vdi
compatibility as input format.
However, on these online man pages
<https://linux.die.net/man/1/virt-v2v> I see a section called "Local
VirtualBox guests" which seems to indicate that vdi is indeed
accepted as input format.
Unfortunately the link documents the old version of virt-v2v (which we
normally call "0.9"). The current version is a derivative of that, of
sorts, but massively rewritten internally.
Can anyone provide feedback as to the above?
v2v seems to be a tool I could use to more easily deal with this
conversion/migration than just using qemu-img convert and having to
then deal with the other bits and pieces such as virtio drivers,
etc.
It's good that you mention ‘qemu-img convert’, because the significant
difference between virt-v2v & plain qemu-img conversion is that
virt-v2v will try to install virtio drivers. Installing virtio
drivers in a Windows guest post-conversion is a PITA which is why
virt-v2v may be better if you require virtio.
So ... to the topic: We don't specifically test conversion from
VirtualBox or .vdi. But it ought to work.
You will need the virtio drivers from:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windows_Virtio_Drivers
You can either install that package so it appears under
/usr/share/virtio-win, or you can use the .iso file from that package
and set the VIRTIO_WIN environment variable to point to it:
http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v.1.html#environment-variables
Do you have metadata from VirtualBox (number of CPUs, RAM, etc) in
some format? If not, then you should probably use the ‘-i libvirtxml’
input method. You will have to write or modify the metadata, as
documented here:
http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v.1.html#minimal-xml-for--i-libvirtxml-option
I believe that virt-v2v should be able to transparently convert
the .vdi source file. You might or might not need to use the
‘-if vdi‘ option.
It's safe to run virt-v2v on the guest disk image (or a copy, if you
want to be extra cautious), just to see if it can be converted. If it
fails or gives warnings or errors, then please post the full output of
‘virt-v2v -v -x ....’
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
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