Move from Vmware to VBOX

[dynaguy]

We have a old PC running VMware 1.0.5 server on Ubuntu 8.04. It has a Windows XP Guest which has a licensed software installed. Now I want move the whole WinXP guest to a new Ubuntu 10.04/VBOX 3.28. Now I am having problem to boot up the WindowsXP guest under VBOX.

Here is what I did:
1. Copy all the vmdk files to the new Ubuntu 10.04 PC.
2. On Ubuntu 10.04, convert vmdk to vdi using

Code: Select all

VBoxManage clonehd <srcfile.vmdk> <destfile.vdi> --format VDI  

3. Add the VDI in Virtual Media Manager
4. Create new XP guest using the VDI file
5. Start the VM and I got "no boot medium" error

Please help.

Thanks.

[fixedwheel]

2. On Ubuntu 10.04, convert vmdk to vdi using

you should not need this, mount the VMDK file in VBox should do

[ChipMcK]

VMware products frequently have a Tools package installed in the virtual machine. Did you uninstall before converting the vmdk files?

I found that the .vmx files seldom tell enough info for Controllers and drives. For Windows machines, the Device Manager gives the required information. Then use that when you define the new Vbox virtual machine. IDE for IDE, SCSI for SCSI, SAS for SAS

[fixedwheel]

Then use that when you define the new Vbox virtual machine. IDE for IDE, SCSI for SCSI,

yes, forgot about that: coming from VMWare maybe Buslogic SCSI is your friend

[dynaguy]

Thanks everyone's help.

I checked the original VMware guest for the type of hard drive controller under Device Manager, it says:
Intel(R) 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE COntroller

So I should use IDE in the VBOX. I tried use all three possible type: PIIX3, PIIX4, and ICH6, still no luck.
I also tried SCSI anyway....

This time I used the vmdk without converting. Also VMware Tools has been uninstalled.

What could be wrong? here is the list of files copied from VMware:

Code: Select all

-rw------- 1 user staff   958660608 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s001.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1228537856 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s002.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1594359808 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s003.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff   405929984 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s004.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1669136384 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s005.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2146500608 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s006.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1994326016 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s007.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1831075840 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s008.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2140274688 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s009.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2122252288 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s010.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1994850304 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s011.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2067333120 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s012.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff   657653760 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s013.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff        1425 2010-09-14 14:01 Windows-XP-Professional-000002.vmdk
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user staff         940 2010-09-14 14:05 Windows XP Professional.vmx

Did I miss something?

[ChipMcK]

Is that a SnapShot? Never tried one of those, only the 'base' vmdk file

[fixedwheel]

What could be wrong? here is the list of files copied from VMware:

Code: Select all

-rw------- 1 user staff   958660608 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s001.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1228537856 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s002.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1594359808 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s003.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff   405929984 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s004.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1669136384 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s005.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2146500608 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s006.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1994326016 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s007.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1831075840 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s008.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2140274688 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s009.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2122252288 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s010.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  1994850304 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s011.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff  2067333120 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s012.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff   657653760 2010-09-14 14:30 Windows-XP-Professional-000002-s013.vmdk
-rw------- 1 user staff        1425 2010-09-14 14:01 Windows-XP-Professional-000002.vmdk
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user staff         940 2010-09-14 14:05 Windows XP Professional.vmx

hmm... looks like split type VMDK, i don't think VBox supports that.

[dynaguy]

Is that a SnapShot? Never tried one of those, only the 'base' vmdk file

They are not not SanpShot files. If I use "VboxManager clondhd" to create a vdi file, it seems combines all this small files into a big vdi file (20GB).

[ChipMcK]

Are those not VMware created files? If so, "Windows-XP-Professional-000002", as I recall is a SnapShot/AutoProtect .vmdk file.

SnapShots are 'deta' files. You need to merge the 'deltas' back to the base .vmdk file and then do the migration/conversion.

Other options are Physical-2-Virtual programs to create new 'base' .vmdk files while under VMware, where the base and deltas exist
1) Disk2vhd.exe http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 56415.aspx
2) VMware vCenter Converter http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/c ... RwaGJ0QGg=

Best of Luck!

[mpack]

Those are vmdk "extents", basically it's a split VMDK just as "fixedwheel" suggested. There should also be a small file also with an vmdk extension but which is in fact a text file, called a descriptor, which lists all the other extents in order and some other drive info too (edit: ah, see it now, the last vmdk file in the list). Normally the file naming is like this :-

My Virtual Machine.vmdk <-- note no numbered suffix, this is probably the descriptor file, especially if relatively small.
My Virtual Machine-s001.vmdk <-- first extent, <=2GB.
My Virtual Machine-s002.vmdk <-- second extent, <=2GB.
...

The vmx file describes the virtual machine, and is not needed to read the drive image.

A missing descriptor and/or a missing first extent (which contains the boot sectors of course) would give you problems, but I doubt VBoxManage could clone it in that case. If no obvious descriptor file exists then the text may be embedded in the first extent. This is an option allowed by VMDK, and in that case you would only be able to view the text with a hex editor.

I personally think you were on the right track converting it to VDI: IMHO a single file is easier to manage than a VMDK wiith a large number of extents. My guess is that the boot problem is probably due to a controller type mismatch.

You could try opening the VMDK (or the VDI) using CloneVDI, and use the Sector Viewer feature to examine sectors 0 and 63. Sector 0 should contain the master boot code and partition map (MBR), sector 63 should contain the XP boot sector. Basically, if you can see the boot code then there is no reason why the VM BIOS shouldn't see it as well.

[ChipMcK]

from a VMware Fusion virtual Machine - first snapshot and base vmdk files

Code: Select all

-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s001.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s002.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s003.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s004.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s005.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s006.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s007.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s008.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s009.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001-s010.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff         649 Sep 15 09:05 XP002-000001.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff  1915879424 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s001.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff  1498284032 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s002.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff  1012203520 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s003.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff   344326144 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s004.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff   621871104 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s005.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      393216 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s006.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      720896 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s007.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff    45481984 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s008.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      327680 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s009.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff      458752 Sep 15 09:04 XP002-s010.vmdk
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 CBMcK  staff         828 Sep 12 17:30 XP002.vmdk

[mpack]

Oh, I see... so that "x-000002" thing then is the VMware naming convention for a snapshot offspring of "x". I've never seen a snapshot of a segmented VMDK!

That partly explains it then. The image is incomplete (we seem to be missing snapshot #1 and the base image), which is why it won't boot. The puzzle is how come VBoxManage doesn't give an error when you try to clone it. Perhaps it doesn't expect segmented snapshots.

[dynaguy]

Finally, i made it. Thanks everyone's help.

Here is what I did:
1. Cloned my old Ubuntu 8.04 hard drive using clonezilla (I don't want mass up the running system), then started work on that cloned drive.
2. Remove the VMware Tools from the XP guest.
3. Run a script MergeIDE found here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/attachment/wi ... rgeIDE.zip
It's in German but I run it anyway.
4. Shutdown XP Guest
5. Now go to the virtual hard drive directory, make one big vmdk file from those split files.

Code: Select all

sudo vmware-vdiskmanager -r Windows-XP-Professional-000002.vmdk -t 2 OneBigFile.vmdk

This actually generate 2 files: OneBigFile.vmdk(346 byte) and OneBigFile-flat.vmdk(25GB)
6. scp the above two files to new Ubuntu10.04/VBOX PC
7. Add the OneBigFile.vmdk in Virtual Media Manager
8. Create new XP guest using the OneBigFile.vmdk file
9. Change some configration: Enable IO APIC (System), use SCSI BusLogic Controller.
10. Start the VM and I got to the login screen, then suddenly went to BSOD.
11. Restart XP Guest, this time it getting better and I can login. Install Guest Addition. Reboot.
12. XP keep asking to active the windows because the hardware "changed". So I did it.

I am not sure all the steps are absolutely needed but that was how I did it.

[jefcully]

Thanks for this post entry .. it seems that this will help me greatly. However, I can not figure out how the "expect" script updates the XP registry. Can you elaborate on that?

Thank you!

[dynaguy]

However, I can not figure out how the "expect" script updates the XP registry. Can you elaborate on that?

I was reading from here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

For reasons we don't understand, Windows memorizes which IDE/ATA controller it was installed on and fails to boot in case the controller changes. This is very annoying because you will run into this problem with basically all migrated images. The solution here is to perform several modifications to the Windows registry. This can be done while the installation is still running on the original system because all it does is relax the IDE checks. Therefore the installation will continue to work on the original system after the modification. The easiest way is to use the excellent MergeIDE utility from the German c't computer magazine.

I think the MergeIDE script just by modify the registry so make the Hard Drive Controller more generic, or compatible to VBOX. So I think I might need to run it.

Hope this helps.