RPM package vmfs6-tools missing for local migration procedure

GuillaumeHullin

Hi there,
First post in XCP-ng community and it's a question... and my workaround.
Migrating huge VMDK from ESXi 7 is a pain... the V2V is great but it seems that the VMkernel is capping my 10Gbps SFP to 200Mbps.
So I wanted to give a shot to the local migration procedures: https://docs.xcp-ng.org/installation/migrate-to-xcp-ng/#local-migration-same-host

Buuuut I got stuck on

wget https://forensics.cert.org/centos/cert/7/x86_64/vmfs6-tools-0.2.1-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

404 error... so I tried to find an equivalent rpm... but no luck (note I'm not familiar with CentOS package management)! So here is the question: do somebody know where to find it?

Now I was not going to be stopped... so I booted a LinuxMint (Debian Edition) Live CD.... a GUI is not needed but nice in case you want to browse the web.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install qemu-utils vmfs6-tools

Then I mounted the LVM XCP-ng SR and followed the rest of the procedure for converting.

DustinB

@GuillaumeHullin said in RPM package vmfs6-tools missing for local migration procedure:

/centos/cert/7/x86_64/vmfs6-tools-0.2.1-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

The documentation references a RPM package that was torn down by the provider.... and for a very old distro.

So that part of the documentation needs to be updated.

olivierlambert

Hmm indeed the package is not there anymore. We'll have to find it and host it somewhere

GuillaumeHullin

What about using XOA VM as it is Debian-based and the packages are already part of Debian repo.
Here is an idea:

Install XCP-ng on a separate drive (like in the procedure).
Deploy or migrate XOA on the host.
Expose the VMFS devices to XOA (as passthrough) with something like:

mkdir /srv/vmfs 
ln -s /dev/disk/by-id/<DISK_ID> /srv/vmfs`
xe sr-create name-label=VMFS type=udev content-type=disk device-config:location= /srv/vmfs host-uuid=<HOST UUID>`

Attach the new SR to XOA.
Mount the VMFS within XOA VM.
Use XOA to convert and send the vhd to an SR via the API.

The part of sending the VHD to an SR is what XO does already... but I'm really not familiar with how it work internally.

This can be done manually or could (if someone want to code it) be integrated in XOA web interface to provide super fast VMware conversion.

olivierlambert

We'll rebuild a package for XCP-ng. The perk on converting in-line is to avoid any network transfer to make it faster.

GuillaumeHullin

You're right. It's certainly easier that way

AtaxyaNetwork

@GuillaumeHullin Hi !

I rebuild (with an assist, I admit) an RPM based on a src.rpm I found

If you want to test it, you can find it here: https://nextcloud.ataxya.net/index.php/s/Jb7Cg57gPHRjfSk

No guaranties that will work, I don't have any vmfs to test the package

Let me know if you can test it !

GuillaumeHullin

@AtaxyaNetwork Sure I can test and I'll report back if it was successful.
Thanks a lot.

GuillaumeHullin

@AtaxyaNetwork seems to work fine. I can mount my VMFS6 and the conversion is in progress.
Do you need specific test?
Note: did it on a fresh install of XCP-ng and after a yum update.

olivierlambert

If the conversion works, then it works Ideally, we'll need to see if it yields to the end of the conversion, and if you can actually boot the VM after that.

GuillaumeHullin

No problem I’ll update when it’s done and working.

olivierlambert

Thanks! We'll update the doc after that to point with the right package (and maybe even add the package in XCP-ng reps directly)

GuillaumeHullin

@olivierlambert
Happy to report that it worked perfectly. VM booted without an issue.

@AtaxyaNetwork
Thanks for such quick compile.

olivierlambert

Excellent! So we need to get the package available easily and update our doc.

@Team-OS-Platform-Release please have a look on this, thanks!

AtaxyaNetwork

@GuillaumeHullin You're welcome !

I hope the XCP-ng team can integrate the package easily !

gduperrey

Hello,

We've added a card to our backlog to investigate this topic.