User guide

Linux P2V Conversions 126
Linux Conversion Overview
• Cold Mode Conversions: Linux systems may be converted in Cold mode only.
The source server is captured in the Cold mode. MTP component runs there
remotely, replaces the boot loader and then reboots the host. After rebooting,
there are no processes that could change the source disk data, and those data are
then passed to the target one-for-one. Therefore, the image is 100% consistent.
• Block Conversions: Due to the variety of file systems supported by the various
Linux distributions, only block conversions are supported.
• Converted Volumes: vConverter runs P2V Linux conversions in the block mode,
which is why the minimal unit to be migrated is a disk partition. vConverter
creates one target virtual disk per each source physical disk. The same rule
applies to the disk partitions and their layout. If you have not marked some
volumes for conversion, you will still see them on the target, however they will be
empty (and take minimum memory space supported by the given virtualization
platform). The target virtual disks may be re-ordered. This is done to keep the
target system properly bootable, as the virtualization platforms have no facilities
to denote the boot preference.
Note The source hosts may have various disk devices (e.g. IDE, SATA, SCSI), while the
virtualization platforms may only support their restricted modifications: SCSI in ESX. For
this reason, on the target system, you may need to re-configure some of your programs -
those that are designed to be used by specific disk devices, for example disk state
monitors.
• Boot Configurations: vConverter supports Linux hosts which are booted by
GRUB boot loader only; the legacy LILO boot loader is not supported.
• MAC Address: After conversion, a Network Interface Card (NIC) is allocated to
the target VM. This card's MAC address is different from the source one. Thus,
some specific software programs that use MAC addresses of NIC devices may
not to work properly.
• X Windows: Since there potentially may be some problems with graphical
devices migration, vConverter switches off the resulting VM GUI (X Window).
As GUI is not a vital component of Unix-like systems (which include Linux), this
is the safest conversion option. Though X Window is switched off, it is still
migrated together with all other disk data, and you can enable it manually by
changing the runlevel value. Also, you can specify vConverter not to disable X
Windows (in vConverter Client, on the Task Properties pane, select Advanced >
VM > X Window). Before using this option or enabling X Window manually,
please ensure the source and target graphical devices are compatible. Take into
account the following information: