Re: Converting VMware Windows Images into KVM images

[Aaron Peeler <aa...@ncsu.edu>]

Very cool. This will be helpful as we move forward on the libvirt/kvm module.

It looks like this could be automated within the vcl code.

Thanks,
Aaron

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Young h Oh <oh...@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've working on the integration between IBM SmartCloud Provisioning and VCL
> and I found some useful tips and issues on converting VMware Windows images
> into KVM images.
>
> For the VMware Linux image case, you could directly convert  VMware Linux
> images into KVM (libvirt) images using 'qemu-img' command.
>
> $ qemu-img convert Your-VMware-Linux-flat.vmdk -O raw (/qcow2)
> KVM-Linux.img
>
> However, if you try to directly convert a VMware Windows images into KVM
> images using 'qemu-img' command, you might have the BOD (blue screen of
> Death) issue on boot of the converted images in KVM.  The main reason for
> BOD problem is that most VMware Windows images are installed on SCSI
> virtual disk  but KVM requires IDE device driver for converted images. To
> solve this problem, you might have different methods but I'd like to
> introduce how I solved that problem. I updated the Windows Registry of the
> images offline to  using libguestfs library in RHEL 6 (host). The detailed
> steps are follows:
>
> ===============================
> 1. Prepare OS
> -  RHEL 6 X86_64
> Notes: libguestfs-winsupport package is only needed on RHE 6 hosts
>
> 2. Install packages (qemu-img, all libguestfs related packages:
> http://libguestfs.org/ )
> $ yum install qemu-img '*libguestfs*'
>
> 3. Download and install  'libguestfs-winsupport' (windows support package)
> (
> http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/16605602/dir/scientific_linux_6/com/libguestfs-winsupport-1.0-7.el6.x86_64.rpm.html
>  )
> $ rpm -i libguestfs-winsupport-1.0-7.el6.x86_64.rpm
> => You will see virt-win-reg command now (virt-win-reg manual :
> http://libguestfs.org/virt-win-reg.1.html#currentcontrolset_etc_ )
>
> 4. Download and modify mergeide.reg
> (http://www.proxmox.com/downloads/proxmox-ve/misc/59-mergeide )
> => Replace all CurrentControlSet => ControlSet001
> e.g) vi mergeide.reg
> :1,$s/CurrentControlSet/ControlSet001/g
>
> 5. Define KVM xml file
>
> 6. Converting Images
> $ qemu-img convert Your-VMware-Windows-flat.vmdk Your-KVM-Windows.img
> $ virt-win-reg --merge Your-KVM-Windows.img mergeide.reg
> $ virsh --connect qemu:///system define Your_Image.xml
> $ virsh start Your_Image_Domain
>
> Note: I do NOT have any issues on this method but you might do this at your
> own risks.
> ===============================
>
> Thanks,
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Young Hyun Oh
> IBM, Tivoli CTO Technology and Architecture
>
>



-- 
Aaron Peeler
Program Manager
Virtual Computing Lab
NC State University

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