import physical freeBSD into VMWARE (ESX) server as a vServer

[ccc]

hi

howto import physical freeBSD 7.0 into VMWARE (ESX 3.5) as a guest/virtual server ?
can I use VMware Converter or better not ?

greetings
ccc

[phoenix]

Don't bother with the converter for Unix systems.

Just take a backup of the system using something like dar, create the VM as per normal, boot off a LiveCD in the VM, and restore to the virtual disk. Then just adjust /boot/loader.conf, /etc/rc.conf, and /etc/fstab to work with the new devices. Reboot the VM and you're done.

You may want to install a GENERIC kernel first, but it's not needed if you edit /boot/loader.conf before booting to enable the needed drivers.

We've used the above to migrate RedHat Linux, Debian Linux, and FreeBSD systems from physical servers to VMWare Server VMs, Xen VMs, and KVM VMs.

[beandip]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Don't bother with the converter for Unix systems.

Just take a backup of the system using something like dar, create the VM as per normal, boot off a LiveCD in the VM, and restore to the virtual disk. Then just adjust /boot/loader.conf, /etc/rc.conf, and /etc/fstab to work with the new devices. Reboot the VM and you're done.

You may want to install a GENERIC kernel first, but it's not needed if you edit /boot/loader.conf before booting to enable the needed drivers.

We've used the above to migrate RedHat Linux, Debian Linux, and FreeBSD systems from physical servers to VMWare Server VMs, Xen VMs, and KVM VMs.

What about converting from an AMD64 build to VMWare? Does this method work to do that?

[phoenix]

VMWare VMs emulate a bunch of standard Intel hardware. If you are using a 64-bit version of VMWare, then you can create 64-bit VMs, and install 64-bit OSes.

[windependence]

Originally Posted by phoenix

VMWare VMs emulate a bunch of standard Intel hardware. If you are using a 64-bit version of VMWare, then you can create 64-bit VMs, and install 64-bit OSes.

You can create 64 bit VMs and run 64 bit guests with the 32 bit version. There is no 64 bit version yet except VMware server, which is much slower than ESXi (free) or ESX 3.5.

-Tim

[phoenix]

Good to know, thanks. We only use VMWare Server and the odd VMWare Player.

[windependence]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Good to know, thanks. We only use VMWare Server and the odd VMWare Player.

You're welcome. I just completed a 5 day VMware boot camp and I expect to be certified next week if all goes well (wish me luck)

Since ESXi was released for free ($599 before that) if you can get some hardware that will run it, you will see a huge difference in performance and it's ability to handle way more VMs per server. ESXi requires no host OS, and it's footprint is 32MB. You can even get Dell machines with it loaded on 2 EPROMMs (one for backup). I was absolutely amazed at the number of VMs you can run on one box, and still get great performance. This was with Windoze in the lab but with FBSD I can imagine 50 VMs on a single box easily.

If you guys need any help with VMware products, feel free to ask.

-Tim