4.3.2.3. Converting a remote Xen virtual machine


Xen virtual machines can be converted remotely using SSH. Ensure that the host running the virtual machine is accessible via SSH. Even on a guest with multiple disks, each virtual disk transfer requires a separate SSH session.

Important

It is recommended to set up SSH keys for authentication prior to the remote virtual machine conversion. Otherwise, a user will be required to manually enter SSH credentials for each guest disk being transferred. Failure to enter a password manually in the time after the transfer completes but before the SSH negotiation times out will cause virt-v2v to fail. This is especially important for large disks, as the disk transfer can take an unspecified length of time.
To convert the virtual machine, run:
virt-v2v -o rhev -ic xen+ssh://root@vmhost.example.com -os storage.example.com:/exportdomain --network rhevm guest_name
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Where vmhost.example.com is the host running the virtual machine, storage.example.com:/exportdomain is the export storage domain, rhevm is the locally managed network to connect the converted virtual machine's network to, and guest_name is the name of the Xen virtual machine.
You may also use the --bridge parameter to connect to a locally managed network if your virtual machine only has a single network interface. If your virtual machine has multiple network interfaces, edit /etc/virt-v2v.conf to specify the network mapping for all interfaces.
If your guest uses a Xen paravirtualized kernel (it would be called something like kernel-xen or kernel-xenU), virt-v2v will attempt to install a new kernel during the conversion process. You can avoid this requirement by installing a regular kernel, which will not reference a hypervisor in its name, alongside the Xen kernel prior to conversion. You should not make this newly installed kernel your default kernel, because Xen will not boot it. virt-v2v will make it the default during conversion.
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