Are raid disks really universally unsupported for vmware. Free raid calculator caclulate raid array capacity and. Vmware converter will work, however any options such as resizing the disks and post migration configuration are greyedout. Linux has supported the idea of software raid, particularly raid 1 or disk mirroring for a long time. The host has a gigabit card but its currently connected to a 100mb fd port. Make a vmware copy of a live linux server cedric walter home. I have a physical linux server with two sata drives using software raid. If the physical machine is a linux virtual machine, vcenter converter will really do not support that configuration, see.
This magical piece of this free software can at the same time align properly the destination vms virtual disks in order to get the best possible performance. Vmware provides several useful unique features and generally offers better support for vms with linux based guest operating systems os. I had to go on a purchase a storage controller to setup a raid for the hypervisor to install on. Reasons to run a software raid in a linux server running in vmware. Mar 06, 2011 run the system configuration utility to disable all unnecessary software services on start. Apr 21, 2017 if the physical machine is a linux virtual machine, vcenter converter will really do not support that configuration, see. The raid is an abstraction layer outside of the os as long as you are using hardware raid and the raid is truly just a single disk to the os. Im only going to be running 23 vm guests most likely 2x win server 2012r2 stds and maybe 1x win7 pro or linux distro for basic addc redundancy and a rds gateway.
Vmware converter best practices esx virtualization. Use mylibrary to build out your own product information stack and share it with colleagues and friends, and always feel free to leave us feedback so we can improve. Here is what converter does for live linux conversions create the target vm with the required hardware configuration. For windows nt and 2000 servers, you need to use the msconfig. Under physical disks, select the hard disks that you want to include in the virtual disk. This raid calculator computes array characteristics given the disk capacity, the number of disks, and the array type.
Mar 19, 20 at first, vmware converter 5 is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. In order to configure software raid inside of a starwind vsan vm, hba or raid controller must be. Unfortunately converter does not support software raid configurations. Jan 23, 2019 recommended settings for linux software raid with starwind vsan for vsphere. Connect to the vcenter, select the getting started tab, click on create datacenter, and enter the datacenter name. You cant get the hba to see you existing data since the ondisk format is different, and even if you could magically do that, then youd be presenting a file system that esxi doesnt support. How to readconvert audit log timestamp in rhel7 linux and. Currently thay are running linux software raid aka mdadm and vmware server. If you have a small number of machines to convert, you can use this tool because its free. To speedup the process i decided to create a windows vm on the same esxi host where ive installed windows 7 and vmware converter. How to config software raid 5 install centos 7 on vmware. Vmware vsphere and microsoft hyperv are both hardware virtualization platforms, but on some occasions, you might need to convert a hyperv virtual machine vm for use with vmware. I have an esxi with few vms linux windows configured and id like to use vmware converter to create backups.
Improve performance, reliability, interoperability, and centralize management. Software raid 5 always missing 1 disk after reboot. During cloning of poweredon linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. Only thing i had to do with the ssd is tell the host to id the raid 0 drive for the ssd which is a simple thing to do in an esxi host and reboot after that i installed the lsi providers vib so i can remote into the hosts and control the raid without rebooting the host all the time. If the purpose of the vm is to test a particular software configuration that. Starwind virtual san for vsphere linux software raid configuration. The following steps will be taken to convert existing physical linux server to a virtual image. I then selected the vmware converter option configure machine, selected the vm that it created, made no changes in the configuration and selected next. How to remove sw raid for vmware converter to work david hrbac. Physicalraid 1 to virtual using vmware standalone converter. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations. If you need to convert thousands of vms, you should use another tool that brings more automation such as double.
Nov 01, 2017 vcp6dcv blueprint covers p2v chapter too. May 05, 2017 starwind virtual storage appliance vsa is a linux based virtual machine with vsan from starwind installed and configured. If you did not modify storage disks, you can use the raid utility to change the hardware raid level. Some disk partitions dont have a filesystem at all, such as those used for swap, lvm or software raid md. Recommended raid settings for hdd and ssd disks starwind. I think a manual approach would be more feasible here. I am doing this setup on my vmware workstation where my box. Adding an old softwareraid array to a softwareraid installation boot problems.
You can use vmware vcenter converter to convert the disk and import the virtual machine into vsphere. The esxi install dialog only shows both disks separate to chose on which to install the hypervisor. Vmware converter 3 can clone source images containing these operating systems, but the destination virtual machine may or may not work without additional configuration after import. Top tips for using vmware vcenter converter 4sysops. Search through a range of vmware product documentation, kb articles, technical papers, release notes, vmware validated designs, and videos, or use the all products page to browse instead. The reconfiguration took less then 2 minutes and when it was completed my vm booted fine. Boots the destination vm from a live linux iso and then.
Hoping to remain competitive with rivals microsoft and aws, vmware is updating its hybrid cloud platform, marrying cloud products with a number of containerbased technologies. Start discussions with the vmware community directly from any docs topic. Vmware vcenter converter standalone is an easy tool that enables you to convert physical servers windows or linux to virtual machines. Using starwind vsan, the process of deploying vms, providing faulttolerant storage, connecting it to hypervisor, and creating highly available vms becomes a piece o cake. Vmware esxi formerly esx is an enterpriseclass, type1 hypervisor developed by vmware for deploying and serving virtual computers. Enterprise software raid never, ever does anything of the sort. Quickly convert physical machines to virtual machines with vmware free p2v converter. I was able to create an image of this server, convert to vhdx and fire up a vm in hyper v, however i am getting boot errors and kernel panic now because its referencing the raid, is there a way to remove it and proceed with boot. Select an appropriate raid configuration from the raid level dropdown menu.
I am not able to setup hardware raid atm, and need a workaround. Linux software raid mdadm, mdraid can be used as an underlying storage device for starwind virtual san devices. Aug 12, 2014 5 comments on breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware converter i rarely post supergeeky stuff on here, but since i couldnt find any good instructions to do this important and critical activity on the internet, and my coworkers had to piece together a set of steps that worked for us, i wanted to share what we learned. Linux software raid1 md raid onthefly so that vmware converter. At first, vmware converter 5 is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. Once its stopped,you can remove the superblock to destroy complete raid configuration from the configured disks. Disk mirroring is a great way to gain some insurance against a single disk failure bringing down a critical system, as everything rewritten to one disk is also written to the other disk. The admin knew how to set up software raid arrays on linux, but not on. I need to somehow setup a fakeraid inside virtual machine to keep a copy data on each drive raid0. The converter is compatable with virtual machine images created with vmware workstation, vmware infrustructure, microsoft virtual pc, parallels, acronis true image, symantec livestate and more. Converter and software raid linux vivizihosting oct 7, 2009 5. The server comes with software lsi megaraid and intel rapid storage raid. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware converter truk rambles.
This was the first tool i actually started to work with when i first started with datacenter virtualization. The converter works inside the machine so has no idea about the raid and doesnt care. Esxi itself doesnt support any software raid implementation in any way, shape or form. The company supplying the software raid controller and the dedicated controller were the same adaptec.
Will a ex software raid 1 disk boot without raid software. Resolving linux boot issues after p2v with vmware converter. Linux block size1024 log0 fragment size1024 log0 26104 inodes, 104320 blocks 5216 blocks 5. I wasnt able to find any information about this, nor found any option in guestos bios. Raid controllers are not hbashost bus adapters 5, esxi is an operating system. Yes, fake raid, when it works, is implemented in software but with the addition of a component that no purpose but to deceive the implementer into believing that the raid is happening in hardware. I know and understand that this is not supported by the vmware converter.
You cannot present a superblock or anything else native to linux to a vsphere system. Jul 22, 2017 converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. If you want remove the software raid, use the below methods. As for converter supporting software raid, that is a very complex problem that not a lot of conversion tools dont support. I plan to use the vmware converter, rather than the acronis vm recovery. Step by step guide to configurecreate software raid 1 mdadm. Reference documentation, the vmware vcenter converter standalone api reference guide, which provides languageneutral descriptive information object type definitions, properties, and method signatures, for example for the vmware vcenter converter standalone 6. Converter is a pretty well made tool for being free. Lenovo raid management tools and resources lenovo press. Vmware vcenter converter is a free tool that is an indispensable utility for vmware administrators. Would someone be able to tell me the best process for converting the already running linux machine to a virtual machine to be used in esxi.
I have a vmware esxi 5 running on a server with ssd and two hard drives. Running the following command from the server console will also convert the virtual disk to a format that esxesxi can understand. Click the datacenters getting started tab and click create a cluster. Windows raid or linux raid are not fake raid, they are software raid as the term implies. This guide describes the deployment and configuration process of the starwind virtual san with vmware vsphere. Vmware vcenter converter standalone release notes but, see that workaround. Other than that, no, its not possible to do what you want. Even now, many years after physical to virtual p2v conversion in many enterprises has finished, there are systems to convert or reconfigure, as the tool can also optimize and resize disks and their layout. Vmware converter was and still is very popular free tool for p2v or v2v conversions. How to remove linux software raid1 md raid onthefly so that. In particular, if the source image contains unsupported hardware, you might need to modify the configuration of the destination virtual machine before using it.
The main thing is that you can install it on any industrystandard hypervisor hyperv, esxi, xen, kvm, which gives you huge choice and flexibility. Search through a range of vmware product documentation, kb articles, technical papers, release notes, vmware validated designs, and videos. How to install centos 7 on vmware workstation and config raid 5 how to install centos 7 on vmware workstation. As mentioned earlier, the vmware hypervisor does not recognize the raid arrays built by the software raid controller also called fake raid. How to convert a remote physical linux server to a virtual.
No ext, zfs, btrfs, or any other linux file system you can think of. Use the hardware raid utility to change the raid configuration. If you added physical disks, you can include all disks into a single raid, or create a separate raid using only the new disks. Supported raid levels are raid 0, raid 1, raid1e, raid 10. The only other configuration that makes sense is raid5 with one spare, which is a very common outofthebox configuration. So im gonna have to use one of the hdds or raid volumes to install the baremetal os on. A guide to converting hyperv vms to vmware by nakivo. The cold clone will have trouble figuring out your software raid. Converter and software raid linux vmware communities.
If you dont have a good management tool, there is no way to tell for sure unless you look at the controller bios, which will require a reboot. Vmware vcenter converter standalone provides an easytouse solution to automate the process of creating vmware virtual machines from physical machines running windows and linux, other virtual machine formats, and thirdparty image formats. Vmware have now released converter 4 which has support for p2v conversion of linux systems, but only live conversion using a helper vm which has a number of drawbacks for a start it only. I have been reading through its documentation though, and found something surprising. Is it possible to install esxi and create a software raid1 for the esxi datastore. Raid drives are listed as unsupported source volumes for all formats. Storage configuration o raid use a raid configuration that works well for databases. It creates a vmcentric and high performing storage pool for a vmware luster. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware. As a type1 hypervisor, esxi is not a software application that is installed on an operating system os. Dec 29, 20 vmware converter is a software which permits you to convert physical server or pc into virtual machine. From previous question i have been told to setup a raid for guestos dont confuse with hardwaresoftware raid foron host. Oct 04, 2018 by default, audit log would be like below. The vmware vcenter converter provides the ability to convert between an existing virtual machine image, a physical pc, or a hard disk image.
A tool in the server firmware that simplifies the process of updating firmware, configuring uefi system settings, configuring raid, and installing microsoft windows or linux operating systems or vmware hypervisors and associated device drivers on a dualsocket 2p thinkserver system. While vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux servers, sometimes you have to use the cold clone boot cd if the physical server uses software raid and then boot vm from the broken mirror side, or sometimes the. Start using mylibrary to create, annotate and share topics, kb articles, code samples and more. Can vcenter converter standalone be used without an. Gentoo linux wouldnt have been a supported source for vmware converter cold clone. While vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux. How to virtualize this oldish linux server to vmware. Vmware converter best practices virtualization blog. Top 5 most common vmware compatibility issues and how to. Before creating datacenter, the vcenter server should be deployed. Ip address and credentials for your linux pcserver. Convert physical linux server to vmware starwind blog.
How to setup fake raid for vmware virtual machines. I believe it was redhat linux, and suse for example. Vmware vcenter converter standalone free download vmware vsphere hypervisor esxi iso image includes vmware tools quick overview of the process. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. Vmware new releases and updates vmware doubles down on hybrid clouds with containers.
Now you have successfully configured linux software raid and viewed the raid status using various command. We have a brand new dell r710 server with 6 x 146 gb sas drives. It is recommended assigning more vcpus to starwind vm which has linux software raid configured. Starwind virtual san for vsphere linux software raid.
I was looking at possibly using clonezilla and it doesnt support software raid in linux either. Starwind virtual san for vsphere comes as a prepackaged linux virtual machine to be installed as a vm on vsphere. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of poweredon linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. I appears that with vmware this is probably not a necessary setup. How to install centos 7 on vmware workstation and config raid 5. Im not sure if the following will help you because i dont know anything about the vmware p2v converter, but here goes. Oh, if you dont want to boot the machine but want to do it remotely, then you can certainly use vmware converter. Feb 10, 2012 while vmware converter 5 does a good job livecloning the existing linux servers, sometimes you have to use the cold clone boot cd if the physical server uses software raid and then boot vm from the broken mirror side, or sometimes the resulting vm does not boot because of issues with bootloader. Vmware vconverter p2v for windows servers experts exchange. Converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that reside on linux software raid configurations during cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or.
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