Hi, I prefer using the free vmware converter to migrate physical hosts (using the vmware converter boot CD) to virtual. (Citrix Xenserver also offer something, but I did not test it yet). Now, test the xp on a vmware host. Check if everything is running, if necessary adapt the registry to use IDE disks instead of SCSI. And finally, convert the vmdk disk files to your preferred disk format (I use qcow2) - vmware machines can the moved to any other virtualization technology. I wrote the following howto: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migration_of_servers_to_Proxmox_VE (Proxmox VE includes KVM and OpenVZ) Br, Martin > -----Original Message----- > From: kvm-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:kvm-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On > Behalf Of Rich Duzenbury > Sent: Montag, 2. Februar 2009 00:13 > To: kvm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Proper way to convert an existing xp machine to kvm? > > Hi, > > I've been googling for the 'proper' way to migrate an existing windows > box to kvm, but so far, no joy, so I've taken a stab at it. The old > box doesn't do a whole lot, so I'm looking to virtualize it, and then > shrink it to about 10G (from 250). > > I use LVM on the vmserver. So, first things first, I created a plenty > big space (300G) for the old server using system-config-lvm and called > it vmwindows. > > Then, I copied the drive from the old server to the new server. I > booted the ubuntu hardy live CD on the old machine, and then, from > that machine > > cat /dev/sda | ssh -C vmserver "cat > /dev/vg/vmwindows" > > Now, on the vmserver, I verify that the image is ok: > > root@vmserver:/mnt# fdisk /dev/vg/vmwindows > > The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 41610. > There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, > and could in certain setups cause problems with: > 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) > 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs > (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) > > Command (m for help): p > > Disk /dev/vg/vmwindows: 322.1 GB, 322122547200 bytes > 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 41610 cylinders > Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes > Disk identifier: 0xcab10bee > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/vg/vmwindows1 * 1 31129 235335208+ 7 > HPFS/NTFS > /dev/vg/vmwindows2 31131 32301 8852760 c W95 > FAT32 (LBA) > > This is what I expected, in terms of the partitions. The first > partition has the windows install. The second is, I believe, a > recovery partition. > > Also, I can mount this image: > mount -o loop,offset=$((63*512)),rw /dev/vg/vmwindows /mnt > > root@vmserver:/mnt# ls -al WINDOWS/system32/hal.dll > -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 131968 2004-08-03 22:59 WINDOWS/system32/hal.dll > > After unmounting, I try to boot the image: > kvm -drive if=ide,boot=on,file=/dev/vg/vmwindows -name foo > > Result (in a new window): > > QEMU BIOS - build: 07/09/08 > $Revision: 1.182 > Options: apmbios pcibios eltorito rombios32 > > ata0 master: QEMU HARDDISK ATA-7 Hard-Disk ( 300 GBytes) > ata1 master: QEMU DVD-ROM ATAPI-4 CD-Rom/DVD-Rom > > Booting from Hard Disk... > > A disk read error occurred > Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart > > Hmm, not good. What am I doing wrong? > > Thank you. > > Regards, > Rich > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
