9:38 a.m.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for any helpful feedback and pointers.
11:36 a.m.
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
Fedora Windows cross-compiler. Compile Windows programs, test, and
build Windows installers. Over 100 libraries supported.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW
2:01 p.m.
Rich,
Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback, very helpful.
Will follow your suggestions and post again here as needed.
19.08.2017, 10:36, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
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.
8:03 a.m.
Only able to get to this now, but need additional help, if at all possible.
See comments inline below. Thanks.
19.08.2017, 10:36, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
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.
>
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
The above is done (easy).
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
Please bear with me but I really don't have enough info as to HOW to modify the xml
template., beyond the obvious stuff, MAC address, name of VM, etc.
Might there bit a more detailed xml template in context of Windows to kvm/qemu I could
use?
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.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
9:08 a.m.
On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 07:03:50AM -0600, stef204 wrote:
>
http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v.1.html#minimal-xml-for--i-libvirtxml-option
>
Please bear with me but I really don't have enough info as to HOW to
modify the xml template., beyond the obvious stuff, MAC address,
name of VM, etc.
Might there bit a more detailed xml template in context of Windows
to kvm/qemu I could use?
I guess we should probably link to the real documentation:
https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
However virt-v2v has its own parser for libvirt XML and only parses a
(very) small subset of these fields. Generally you only need to take
that template and change a few fields, name, memory size, number of
vCPUs, and make sure there is one <disk> section per disk and one
<interface> section per virtual network adaptor. That'll cover 99% of
use cases.
Use ‘virt-v2v ... -o null’ to do a test conversion.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
virt-top is 'top' for virtual machines. Tiny program with many
powerful monitoring features, net stats, disk stats, logging, etc.
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top
9:47 a.m.
08.10.2017, 08:09, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
I guess we should probably link to the real documentation:
https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
However virt-v2v has its own parser for libvirt XML and only parses a
(very) small subset of these fields. Generally you only need to take
that template and change a few fields, name, memory size, number of
vCPUs, and make sure there is one <disk> section per disk and one
<interface> section per virtual network adaptor. That'll cover 99% of
use cases.
Use ‘virt-v2v ... -o null’ to do a test conversion.
Rich.
Thanks so much Rich.
Will move forward and post here again.
10:02 a.m.
On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 08:47:34AM -0600, stef204 wrote:
08.10.2017, 08:09, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
>
> I guess we should probably link to the real documentation:
>
> https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
>
> However virt-v2v has its own parser for libvirt XML and only parses a
> (very) small subset of these fields. Generally you only need to take
> that template and change a few fields, name, memory size, number of
> vCPUs, and make sure there is one <disk> section per disk and one
> <interface> section per virtual network adaptor. That'll cover 99% of
> use cases.
BTW here is the actual parser, which is the source of all truth
on this subject:
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/parse_libvirt_xm...
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/parse_libvirt_xm...
Of course it's quite complex but it should be possible to grep through
that file to answer simple questions such as "does virt-v2v look
at <some field> in the XML or not?".
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
virt-top is 'top' for virtual machines. Tiny program with many
powerful monitoring features, net stats, disk stats, logging, etc.
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top
10:24 a.m.
08.10.2017, 09:02, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
BTW here is the actual parser, which is the source of all truth
on this subject:
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/parse_libvirt_xm...
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/parse_libvirt_xm...
Of course it's quite complex but it should be possible to grep through
that file to answer simple questions such as "does virt-v2v look
at <some field> in the XML or not?".
Thanks.
11:13 a.m.
08.10.2017, 08:09, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
However virt-v2v has its own parser for libvirt XML and only parses
a
(very) small subset of these fields. Generally you only need to take
that template and change a few fields, name, memory size, number of
vCPUs, and make sure there is one <disk> section per disk and one
<interface> section per virtual network adaptor. That'll cover 99% of
use cases.
Use ‘virt-v2v ... -o null’ to do a test conversion.
I am undoubtedly doing something wrong but cannot spot it.
Here is the xml file <https://bpaste.net/show/bd4df241ee37>
Error message:
% virt-v2v -i libvirtxml Win7.xml -o null
[ 0.0] Opening the source -i libvirtxml Win7.xml
[ 0.0] Creating an overlay to protect the source from being modified
[ 0.1] Initializing the target -o null
[ 0.1] Opening the overlay
[ 4.3] Inspecting the overlay
virt-v2v: error: inspection could not detect the source guest (or physical
machine).
Assuming that you are running virt-v2v/virt-p2v on a source which is
supported (and not, for example, a blank disk), then this should not
happen.
No root device found in this operating system image.
If reporting bugs, run virt-v2v with debugging enabled and include the
complete output:
virt-v2v -v -x [...]
I'm stuck here. I imagine the error is probably obvious but... not to me.
11:28 a.m.
running with -v -x I see this just above the failure:
guestfsd: main_loop: new request, len 0x3c
commandrvf: stdout=n stderr=y flags=0x0
commandrvf: mount -o ro /dev/sda /sysroot/
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.
guestfsd: error: /dev/sda on / (options: 'ro'): mount: wrong fs type, bad option,
bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.
guestfsd: main_loop: proc 73 (mount_ro) took 0.08 seconds
libguestfs: trace: v2v: mount_ro = -1 (error)
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_get_roots
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_get_roots = []
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_os = []
08.10.2017, 10:13, "stef204" <stef204(a)yandex.com>:
08.10.2017, 08:09, "Richard W.M. Jones"
<rjones(a)redhat.com>:
> However virt-v2v has its own parser for libvirt XML and only parses a
> (very) small subset of these fields. Generally you only need to take
> that template and change a few fields, name, memory size, number of
> vCPUs, and make sure there is one <disk> section per disk and one
> <interface> section per virtual network adaptor. That'll cover 99% of
> use cases.
>
> Use ‘virt-v2v ... -o null’ to do a test conversion.
I am undoubtedly doing something wrong but cannot spot it.
Here is the xml file <https://bpaste.net/show/bd4df241ee37>
Error message:
% virt-v2v -i libvirtxml Win7.xml -o null
[ 0.0] Opening the source -i libvirtxml Win7.xml
[ 0.0] Creating an overlay to protect the source from being modified
[ 0.1] Initializing the target -o null
[ 0.1] Opening the overlay
[ 4.3] Inspecting the overlay
virt-v2v: error: inspection could not detect the source guest (or physical
machine).
Assuming that you are running virt-v2v/virt-p2v on a source which is
supported (and not, for example, a blank disk), then this should not
happen.
No root device found in this operating system image.
If reporting bugs, run virt-v2v with debugging enabled and include the
complete output:
virt-v2v -v -x [...]
I'm stuck here. I imagine the error is probably obvious but... not to me.
1:22 p.m.
On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 10:28:39AM -0600, stef204 wrote:
running with -v -x I see this just above the failure:
guestfsd: main_loop: new request, len 0x3c
commandrvf: stdout=n stderr=y flags=0x0
commandrvf: mount -o ro /dev/sda /sysroot/
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.
guestfsd: error: /dev/sda on / (options: 'ro'): mount: wrong fs type, bad option,
bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.
guestfsd: main_loop: proc 73 (mount_ro) took 0.08 seconds
libguestfs: trace: v2v: mount_ro = -1 (error)
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_get_roots
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_get_roots = []
libguestfs: trace: v2v: inspect_os = []
I need to see the entire log.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
virt-df lists disk usage of guests without needing to install any
software inside the virtual machine. Supports Linux and Windows.
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-df/
2:50 p.m.
[stef204 sent me the full log since it contains sensitive information]
The log says that virt-v2v cannot see anything at all on the 34.1 GB
disk (as if the disk is blank). However I think the actual problem is
that you've given the wrong disk type in the XML:
<disk type='file' device='disk'>
<driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
^^^
<source file='xxx.vdi'/>
<target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
</disk>
‘.vdi’ is probably not raw format but something else (most likely 'vdi')
According to ‘qemu-img --help’, qemu supports the vdi format,
hopefully at least enough to be able to read it which is all that
virt-v2v needs.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
Fedora Windows cross-compiler. Compile Windows programs, test, and
build Windows installers. Over 100 libraries supported.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW
3:16 p.m.
08.10.2017, 13:50, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
[stef204 sent me the full log since it contains sensitive
information]
The log says that virt-v2v cannot see anything at all on the 34.1 GB
disk (as if the disk is blank). However I think the actual problem is
that you've given the wrong disk type in the XML:
<disk type='file' device='disk'>
<driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
^^^
<source file='xxx.vdi'/>
<target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
</disk>
‘.vdi’ is probably not raw format but something else (most likely 'vdi')
According to ‘qemu-img --help’, qemu supports the vdi format,
hopefully at least enough to be able to read it which is all that
virt-v2v needs.
OK, so to fix, just change this line--like this?
<driver name='qemu' type='vdi'/>
3:40 p.m.
On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 02:16:43PM -0600, stef204 wrote:
08.10.2017, 13:50, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
> [stef204 sent me the full log since it contains sensitive information]
>
> The log says that virt-v2v cannot see anything at all on the 34.1 GB
> disk (as if the disk is blank). However I think the actual problem is
> that you've given the wrong disk type in the XML:
>
> <disk type='file' device='disk'>
> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
> ^^^
> <source file='xxx.vdi'/>
> <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
> </disk>
>
> ‘.vdi’ is probably not raw format but something else (most likely 'vdi')
>
> According to ‘qemu-img --help’, qemu supports the vdi format,
> hopefully at least enough to be able to read it which is all that
> virt-v2v needs.
>
OK, so to fix, just change this line--like this?
<driver name='qemu' type='vdi'/>
I think so, yes.
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
virt-df lists disk usage of guests without needing to install any
software inside the virtual machine. Supports Linux and Windows.
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-df/
3:41 p.m.
08.10.2017, 13:50, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
[stef204 sent me the full log since it contains sensitive
information]
The log says that virt-v2v cannot see anything at all on the 34.1 GB
disk (as if the disk is blank). However I think the actual problem is
that you've given the wrong disk type in the XML:
<disk type='file' device='disk'>
<driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
^^^
<source file='xxx.vdi'/>
<target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
</disk>
‘.vdi’ is probably not raw format but something else (most likely 'vdi')
Running it currently with the following change in the xml file seems to be doing the job
[it returns "libguestfs: closing guestfs handle 0x55f167f97db0 (state 0)"]:
<driver name='qemu' type='vdi'/>
I have an important question:
While we were going back and forth here and I was waiting for your feedback (which I
should repeat, is most appreciated) I tried this command, from reading the man pages:
% virt-v2v -i disk Win7-convert.vdi -of qcow2 -on Win7.qcow2 -o local -os /mnt/partition2
The -on option probably was not needed as I ended up with a name like Win7.qcow2-sda when
I just wanted Win7.qcow2
However, it completed without failure. I then created a new VM using libvirt/Virt-Manager
and it booted just fine. Once booted, I went on to uninstall the
virtualbox-guest-additions and install this:
<https://www.spice-space.org/download/windows/spice-guest-tools/spice-gues...
And all seems to work properly. I have a network connection and clipboard is shared,
etc.
This was just a test from a copy or the original vdi file I had made using dd. So I am
going to possibly redo it "properly" now for a "final" conversion.
The question is: What am I getting extra by using the -i libvirtxml option as opposed to
the more plain:
% virt-v2v -i disk Win7-convert.vdi -of qcow2 -o local -os /mnt/partition2
5 p.m.
On Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 02:41:30PM -0600, stef204 wrote:
The question is: What am I getting extra by using the -i libvirtxml
option as opposed to the more plain:
% virt-v2v -i disk Win7-convert.vdi -of qcow2 -o local -os /mnt/partition2
Guests consist of the disk images, plus copious metadata.
When you give just the disk image to virt-v2v (‘-i disk disk.img’), it
has to make many guesses about the metadata. See this file for
details:
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/input_disk.ml
Sometimes these guesses will be suboptimal, and by supplying the
correct metadata you can get a more correct conversion (‘-i libvirtxml’
or even better getting the true metadata from VirtualBox).
Rich.
--
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
virt-top is 'top' for virtual machines. Tiny program with many
powerful monitoring features, net stats, disk stats, logging, etc.
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top
5:41 p.m.
08.10.2017, 16:00, "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones(a)redhat.com>:
Guests consist of the disk images, plus copious metadata.
When you give just the disk image to virt-v2v (‘-i disk disk.img’), it
has to make many guesses about the metadata. See this file for
details:
https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/blob/master/v2v/input_disk.ml
Sometimes these guesses will be suboptimal, and by supplying the
correct metadata you can get a more correct conversion (‘-i libvirtxml’
or even better getting the true metadata from VirtualBox).
OK, thanks a lot for your helpful feedback, most appreciated.
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