4.3.2. Converting a virtual machine
Once you have prepared to convert the virtual machines, use
virt-v2v to perform the actual conversions. This section provides the steps to convert the virtual machines, and the command syntax for virt-v2v.
Note that conversions are resource intensive processes that require copying the whole disk image for a virtual machine. In typical environments, converting a single virtual machine takes approximately 5-10 minutes. In Example 4.2, “Typical virt-v2v conversion time” a virtual machine with a single 8GB disk is copied over SSH on a 1GigE network on three-year-old consumer hardware:
Example 4.2. Typical virt-v2v conversion time
win2k3r2-pv-32.img: 100% [===========================================]D 0h02m57s virt-v2v: win2k3r2-pv-32 configured with virtio drivers.
The size of the disk to be copied is the major factor in determining conversion time. For a virtual machine on average hardware with a single disk of 20GB or less, a conversion usually takes less than 10 minutes.
4.3.2.1. virt-v2v
virt-v2v converts virtual machines from a foreign hypervisor to run on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. The general command syntax for converting machines to run on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is:
virt-v2v -i libvirtxml -o rhev -os storage.example.com:/exportdomain --network rhevm guest_name.xml virt-v2v -o rhev -os storage.example.com:/exportdomain --network rhevm guest_name virt-v2v -ic esx://esx.example.com/?no_verify=1 -o rhev -os storage.example.com:/exportdomain --network rhevm guest_name
A full specification of the parameters which can be used with
virt-v2v is available in Section 7.1, “virt-v2v Parameters”.
Important
Presently,
virt-v2v does not support converting a virtual machine with more than four IDE disks to Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Attempting to convert a virtual machine with five or more disks will fail.
