Hi,
is it possible? and how can I convert a virtual machine into a physical?
I have a Sles11SP2 as SLES-Xen HOST, and a OES11SP1 as a guest system on a separate physical disk.
I want to insert the disk with the guest system (OES11SP1 Server) to a new server, and let oes11sp1 operate as a physical system.
Is that possible? and How? What are the steps?
Thanks
is it possible? and how can I convert a virtual machine into a[color=blue]
physical?I have a Sles11SP2 as SLES-Xen HOST, and a OES11SP1 as a guest system
on a separate physical disk.
I want to insert the disk with the guest system (OES11SP1 Server) to a
new server, and let oes11sp1 operate as a physical system.
Is that possible? and How? What are the steps?[/color]
Seems like the easiest way would be to build the server, install the
software and then import the data from the VM. There are probably some
backup softwares, CA comes to mind, that would help you move the data and
some of the configration in the case of NDS.
Hi,
You could use something like “Platespin” or “Symantec System Recovery” to take an image of the virtual machine and convert it to a physical machine.
Regards
John
On 11/07/2013 17:24, amila wrote:
[color=blue]
is it possible? and how can I convert a virtual machine into a
physical?[/color]
What you want to is known as V2P (virtual to physical) when most
conversion tools included with virtualisation products handle the other
way around, P2V (physical to virtual) which of course makes sense.
[color=blue]
I have a Sles11SP2 as SLES-Xen HOST, and a OES11SP1 as a guest system
on a separate physical disk.
I want to insert the disk with the guest system (OES11SP1 Server) to a
new server, and let oes11sp1 operate as a physical system.
Is that possible? and How? What are the steps?[/color]
Others have suggested either installing a new physical then restoring
data from a backup (which you’ll need in any case) or using a
third-party product to handle the V2P conversion.
I notice however that you said you have “OES11SP1 as a guest system on a
separate physical disk.” Do you mean the virtual disk for your OES11
guest is configured from the separate physical disk or that the image
file is stored on a separate disk? The default is to use an image file.
If it’s simply using the separate physical disk exclusively as it’s disk
then theoretically you should be able to transplant it to a physical
server (than can obviously handle that type of disk).
If it’s an image file then that presents further challenges though it
should still be possible, just more work involved.
Either way the install of OES11 SP1 and in particular the underlying
SLES11 SP2 (in the guest) will need some tweaks, most notably to use a
“regular” kernel instead of kernel-xen.
Simon
SUSE Knowledge Partner
Hi,
Thanks for feedbacks.
Simon, yes OES11SP1 is completely installed on separate disk, and it is not a file
That’s why I was thinking
that would be possible to convert to physical mashine without many problems
Hier what I already try to do:
I installd in test-system and test-tree
sles11sp2 host and oes11sp1 gast system
My steeps.
on Gast-System OES11SP1 install:
 kernel-default
 kernel-default-base
 kernel-default-devel
Restart oes11sp1 and check if kernel-default was been installed
Shutdown gast system
and put oes11sp1 disk to another server
Boot new oes11sp1 server with sles11sp2 dvd in rescue system
– mount /dev/sda1 and edit
– mount /dev/server1-system/root (LVM-Volumes) and edit
Now if I try to boot oes11sp1 as a physical Server
I get a message
–partial mode. incomplete volume groups will be processed
no volumes group server1-system found
in bin/bash
if I try: lvscan or vgdisplay I get message no volumes group found.
With Knoppix I can mout and access all LVM Volumes without Problem
Did I forget something or I am completely wrong??
What will be the way to repair lvm group and volumes?
Thenks
[color=blue]
You could use something like “Platespin” or “Symantec System Recovery”
to take an image of the virtual machine and convert it to a physical
machine.[/color]
Yes, another good option.
Hi Amila,
if I try: lvscan or vgdisplay I get message no volumes group found.
please try “vgscan” instead. If that doesn’t return usable results, have a look a the filter settings in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf (“devices” section), maybe someone configured a limit to only include certain devices (that now have a different name)…
Regards,
Jens
Hi Jens,
with vgscan I got a same message
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while…
no volume group found
lvm.conf is default, I didn’t change anything
# By default we accept every block device:
filter = [ “a/.*/” ]
?? I realy have no idee, what and where, should I look!
Thanks
Amila
Hi Amila,
[QUOTE=amila;14511]Hi Jens,
with vgscan I got a same message
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while…
no volume group found
lvm.conf is default, I didn’t change anything
# By default we accept every block device:
filter = [ “a/.*/” ]
?? I realy have no idee, what and where, should I look!
Thanks
Amila[/QUOTE]
do you see the disk(s) at all, when booting into SLES? What puzzles me is that you can obviously see the disk(s) from SLES rescue, so it should not be a driver problem… do you have any indication how the disk is detected/handled when booting into SLES?
Regards,
Jens
[QUOTE=jmozdzen;14512]Hi Amila,
do you see the disk(s) at all, when booting into SLES? What puzzles me is that you can obviously see the disk(s) from SLES rescue, so it should not be a driver problem… do you have any indication how the disk is detected/handled when booting into SLES?
Regards,
Jens[/QUOTE]
Wondering about this one as well… As a rescue system does work, and the original system worked the LVM partitions as well… the lvm2 package should be there, but maybe lvm2 support is simply lacking in the default kernel’s initrd?
Amila: You’re steps to do the conversion sound good to me & it’s what I’ve done before.
I do wonder, the root (/) filesystem partitions, are they on traditional Linux volumes? Or are the vital mounts (like /boot /etc /bin /sbin /lib /usr) on non LVM volumes? If so, you might get the system to boot by remarking the mounts in /etc/fstab for LVM volumes. If that works, you might find what’s missing before you’re able to activate the LVM volumes on the system.
You could also try to run a system (boot) repair using the SLES 11 SP2 installation DVD.
-Willem
Hi,
Sorry for late response,
Finally I got my Virtual OES11SP1 Server running as a physical Server.
@Willem
/dev/sda1 is a boot partition
/dev/sda2 is a LVM group
part of fstab:
/dev/server1-system/swap swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/server1-system/root / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sda1 /boot ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/server1-system/home /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/server1-system/tmp /tmp ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/server1-system/var /var
@Jens
Problem was that I still have in /etc/sysconfig/kernel file
INITRD_MODULES=“xenblk” and not INITRD_MODULES=“aacraid mptsas ahci pata_atiixp ata_generic”
Here are my steeps; I hope that I didn’t forget anything?
And of course I hope that this is a good way to move from virtual to physical server
Files that I need from Host Server (SLES11SP1)
On Gast System install
kernel-default
kernel-default-base
kernel-default-devel
and reboot server.
edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel file and put
INITRD_MODULES=“aacraid mptsas ahci pata_atiixp ata_generic”
Instead of
INITRD_MODULES=“xenblk”
run mkinitrd,
and shutdown Server.
Take out Host-Server Disks and replace with Gast-Server Disk-set (Mirrored Disks)
Boot Server with Sles11Sp2 DVD and go to Rescue mode
mount /dev/sda1 (boot partition and edit)
mount LVM Volumes root some ware and edit replace all “xvda” wirh “sda”
-/etc/fstab (/dev/sda1 instead of /dev/xvda1)
Reboot System and now my Virtual OES11SP1 is running as a physical Server
eDirectory is up and running, I can access all my NSS Volumes and everything works, Â
till now.
Thanks a lot for Help
Amila
Hi Amila,
great to see you got it working!
[QUOTE=amila;14634]Here are my steeps; I hope that I didn’t forget anything?
And of course I hope that this is a good way to move from virtual to physical server
Files that I need from Host Server (SLES11SP1)
On Gast System install
kernel-default
kernel-default-base
kernel-default-devel
and reboot server.
edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel file and put
INITRD_MODULES=“aacraid mptsas ahci pata_atiixp ata_generic”
Instead of
INITRD_MODULES=“xenblk”
run mkinitrd,
and shutdown Server.[/QUOTE]
How about adding the modules required by the hardware server, instead of replacing them? That way your image can be used both for physical and virtual environments.
I didn’t grasp that you wanted to turn the host system into a non-Xen server… are you experiencing problems with the virtualized version? Personally, I’d keep it as a guest system, because you could easily move the DomU to any different host server, without having to modify the guest system (when moving from Dom0 to Dom0, i.e. during hardware upgrades).
[QUOTE=amila;14634]Boot Server with Sles11Sp2 DVD and go to Rescue mode
mount /dev/sda1 (boot partition and edit)
mount LVM Volumes root some ware and edit replace all “xvda” wirh “sda”
-/etc/fstab (/dev/sda1 instead of /dev/xvda1)[/QUOTE]
…using i.e. “LABEL=boot” instead of device name would make this unnecessary.
[QUOTE=amila;14634]- /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
[QUOTE=amila;14634]check :
[QUOTE=amila;14634]Reboot System and now my Virtual OES11SP1 is running as a physical Server
eDirectory is up and running, I can access all my NSS Volumes and everything works, Â
till now.
Thanks a lot for Help
Amila[/QUOTE]
Good to see you got it up & running, and thank you for sharing your results (and check-list 
) with us!
Regards,
Jens
[QUOTE=amila;14634]…
edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel file and put
INITRD_MODULES=“aacraid mptsas ahci pata_atiixp ata_generic”
Instead of
INITRD_MODULES=“xenblk”
run mkinitrd,
and shutdown Server.[/QUOTE]
Doh (to myself, for not asking/noticing), yes of course… that was the kernel support you were missing, drivers for your storage. Good call & thanks for the detailed feedback!
As Jens mentions, I’m also curious why you want to V2P and not keep this as virtual server? What is your main motive?
Cheers,
Willem
Hi,
Jeans good idea to add the modules and not to replace them, thanks.
How about adding the modules required by the hardware server, instead of replacing them? That way your image can be used both for physical and virtual environments.
As Jens mentions, I’m also curious why you want to V2P and not keep this as virtual server? What is your main motive?
Willem why I was looking for possibility to convert virtual oes11sp1 server to physical, is a very good question!
And can be a new Thread:(
Main reason for that was, that I still didn’t find any AntiVirus Software that can run on a Virtual OES11SP1 Server (XEN-kernel and On Access Scan)
I’m looking (still…) for AntiVirus Software that works with XEN Kernel environment, since January this year.
Till now I try McAfee, Kaspersky, Sophos, and TrendMicro, also and have contact with support for all this AntiVirus Software, but without any access:(
Answer from all this Company are nearly the same: till now we are not supporting XEN-Kernel!
Second reason is Backup speed.
With SEP Sesam we have 4x better speed if we are running OES11SP1 as a physical Server.
What are your experiences about AntiVirus Software and XEN environment?
Thanks
Amila
amila wrote:
[color=blue]
Hi,
Jeans good idea to add the modules and not to replace them, thanks.
[color=green][color=darkred]How about adding the modules required by the hardware server,[/color][/color]
instead of replacing them? That way your image can be used both for
physical and virtual environments.
[color=green][color=darkred]
As Jens mentions, I’m also curious why you want to V2P and not keep[/color][/color]
this as virtual server? What is your main motive?Willem why I was looking for possibility to convert virtual oes11sp1
server to physical, is a very good question!
And can be a new Thread:(Main reason for that was, that I still didn’t find any AntiVirus
Software that can run on a Virtual OES11SP1 Server (XEN-kernel and On
Access Scan)I’m looking (still…) for AntiVirus Software that works with XEN Kernel
environment, since January this year.
Till now I try McAfee, Kaspersky, Sophos, and TrendMicro, also and have
contact with support for all this AntiVirus Software, but without any
access:(
Answer from all this Company are nearly the same: till now we are not
supporting XEN-Kernel!Second reason is Backup speed.
With SEP Sesam we have 4x better speed if we are running OES11SP1 as a
physical Server.What are your experiences about AntiVirus Software and XEN
environment?Thanks
Amila[/color]
Amelia, I am running sophos on vitualized oes11 sp1 servers without
any issues at all.
amila wrote:
[color=blue]
Second reason is Backup speed.
With SEP Sesam we have 4x better speed if we are running OES11SP1 as a
physical Server.[/color]
There have been some performance issues related to TCP segmentation
offload. See if either of these documents can help.
http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7005304
http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7002555
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
show your appreciation and click on the star below…
Rick, Yes, you have right
Sophos OnAcess Scan is running on virtual oes11sp1 server but,
we have very, very bad performance browsing NSS volumes in windows explorer.
(Of course exclude /media/nss/Volumes/.Netware)
I open a call with Sophos Support Germany and in a last Mail from 2 of July 2013, they told me:
–Yes we know about bad performance problems and till now we don’t have solution (very strange) and also
– Official we are not supporting 3.0.74-0.6.6-xen, so if you have any problem that will need a 2 level support in USA, they will not help you.
My 30 Days of Test are expired, and I keep Sophos on site:( without access
Which kernel Version you have? and how you solve this performance problem or you are running just OnDeamond Scan, but not OnAcess?
Amila
Hi,
Kevin, thanks for TID I will try it and let you know.
Amila
eDirectory is up and running, I can access all my NSS Volumes and[color=blue]
everything works, �
till now.[/color]
Kudos for tracking down all those steps.