1virt-v2v-input-vmware(1) Virtualization Support virt-v2v-input-vmware(1)
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6 virt-v2v-input-vmware - Using virt-v2v to convert guests from VMware
7
9 virt-v2v -i vmx GUEST.vmx [-o* options]
10 virt-v2v -i vmx
12 -it ssh
13 -ip passwordfile
14 'ssh://root@esxi.example.com/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/guest/guest.vmx'
15 [-o* options]
16 virt-v2v
18 -ic 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1'
19 -it vddk
20 -io vddk-libdir=/path/to/vmware-vix-disklib-distrib
21 -io vddk-thumbprint=xx:xx:xx:...
22 "GUEST NAME"
23 [-o* options]
24 virt-v2v -i ova DISK.ova [-o* options]
26 virt-v2v
28 -ic 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1'
29 "GUEST NAME" [-o* options]
30
32 This page documents how to use virt-v2v(1) to convert guests from
33 VMware. There are currently five different methods to access VMware:
34 -i vmx GUEST.vmx
36 Full documentation: "INPUT FROM VMWARE VMX"
37 If you either have a GUEST.vmx file and one or more GUEST.vmdk disk
39 image files, or if you are able to NFS-mount the VMware storage,
40 then you can use the -i vmx method to read the source guest.
41 -i vmx -it ssh ssh://...
43 Full documentation: "INPUT FROM VMWARE VMX"
44 This is similar to the method above, except it uses an SSH
46 connection to ESXi to read the GUEST.vmx file and associated disks.
47 This requires that you have enabled SSH access to the VMware ESXi
48 hypervisor - in the default ESXi configuration this is turned off.
49 -ic vpx://... -it vddk
51 -ic esx://... -it vddk
52 Full documentation: "INPUT FROM VDDK"
53 This method uses the proprietary VDDK library (a.k.a. VixDiskLib)
55 to access the VMware vCenter server or VMware ESXi hypervisor.
56 If you have the proprietary library then this method is usually the
58 fastest and most flexible. If you don't have or don't want to use
59 non-free software then the VMX or SSH methods above will be best.
60 -i ova DISK.ova
62 Full documentation: "INPUT FROM VMWARE OVA"
63 With this method you must first export the guest (eg. from vSphere)
65 as an .ova file, which virt-v2v can then read directly. Note this
66 method only works with files exported from VMware, not OVA files
67 that come from other hypervisors or management systems, since OVA
68 is only a pretend standard and is not compatible or interoperable
69 between vendors.
70 -ic vpx://... "GUEST NAME"
72 Full documentation: "INPUT FROM VMWARE VCENTER SERVER"
73 If none of the above methods is available, then use this method to
75 import a guest from VMware vCenter. This is the slowest method.
76
78 Virt-v2v is able to import guests from VMware’s vmx files.
79 This is useful in two cases:
81 1. VMware virtual machines are stored on a separate NFS server and you
83 are able to mount the NFS storage directly.
84 2. You have enabled SSH access to the VMware ESXi hypervisor and there
86 is a "/vmfs/volumes" folder containing the virtual machines.
87 If you find a folder of files called guest.vmx, guest.vmxf, guest.nvram
89 and one or more .vmdk disk images, then you can use this method.
90 VMX: Guest must be shut down
92 The guest must be shut down before conversion starts. If you don't
93 shut it down, you will end up with a corrupted VM disk on the target.
94 With other methods, virt-v2v tries to prevent concurrent access, but
95 because the -i vmx method works directly against the storage, checking
96 for concurrent access is not possible.
97 VMX: Access to the storage containing the VMX and VMDK files
99 If the vmx and vmdk files aren't available locally then you must either
100 mount the NFS storage on the conversion server or enable passwordless
101 SSH on the ESXi hypervisor.
102 VMX: SSH authentication
104 You can use SSH password authentication, by supplying the name of a
106 file containing the password to the -ip option (note this option does
107 not take the password directly). You may need to adjust
108 /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the VMware server to set
109 "PasswordAuthentication yes".
110 If you are not using password authentication, an alternative is to use
112 ssh-agent, and add your ssh public key to
113 /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys (on the ESXi hypervisor). After
114 doing this, you should check that passwordless access works from the
115 virt-v2v server to the ESXi hypervisor. For example:
116 $ ssh root@esxi.example.com
118 [ logs straight into the shell, no password is requested ]
119 VMX: Construct the SSH URI
121 When using the SSH input transport you must specify a remote
123 "ssh://..." URI pointing to the VMX file. A typical URI looks like:
124 ssh://root@esxi.example.com/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my%20guest/my%20guest.vmx
126 Any space must be escaped with %20 and other non-ASCII characters may
128 also need to be URI-escaped.
129 The username is not required if it is the same as your local username.
131 You may optionally supply a port number after the hostname if the SSH
133 server is not listening on the default port (22).
134 VMX: Importing a guest
136 To import a vmx file from a local file or NFS, do:
137 $ virt-v2v -i vmx guest.vmx -o local -os /var/tmp
139 To import a vmx file over SSH, add -it ssh to select the SSH transport
141 and supply a remote SSH URI:
142 $ virt-v2v \
144 -i vmx -it ssh \
145 "ssh://root@esxi.example.com/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/guest/guest.vmx" \
146 -o local -os /var/tmp
147 Virt-v2v processes the vmx file and uses it to find the location of any
149 vmdk disks.
150
152 Virt-v2v is able to import guests using VMware’s proprietary VDDK
153 library (a.k.a. VixDiskLib).
154 VDDK: Prerequisites
156 1. As the VDDK library is not open source, and the license of this
157 library does not permit redistribution or commercial use, you must
158 obtain VDDK yourself and satisfy yourself that your usage of the
159 library is permitted by the license.
160 2. nbdkit ≥ 1.6 is recommended, as it ships with the VDDK plugin
162 enabled unconditionally.
163 3. You must find the SSL "thumbprint" of your VMware server. How to
165 do this is explained in nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1), also available at
166 the link above.
167 4. VDDK imports require a feature added in libvirt ≥ 3.7.
169 VDDK: ESXi NFC service memory limits
171 In the verbose log you may see errors like:
172 nbdkit: vddk[3]: error: [NFC ERROR] NfcFssrvrProcessErrorMsg:
174 received NFC error 5 from server: Failed to allocate the
175 requested 2097176 bytes
176 This seems especially common when there are multiple parallel
178 connections open to the VMware server.
179 These can be caused by resource limits set on the VMware server. You
181 can increase the limit for the NFC service by editing
182 /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml and adjusting the "<maxMemory>" setting:
183 <nfcsvc>
185 <path>libnfcsvc.so</path>
186 <enabled>true</enabled>
187 <maxMemory>50331648</maxMemory>
188 <maxStreamMemory>10485760</maxStreamMemory>
189 </nfcsvc>
190 and restarting the "hostd" service:
192 # /etc/init.d/hostd restart
194 For more information see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1614276.
196 VDDK: URI
198 Construct the correct "vpx://" (for vCenter) or "esx://" (for ESXi)
199 URL. It will look something like these:
200 vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi
202 esx://root@esxi.example.com
204 To verify that you have the correct URL, use the virsh(1) command to
206 list the guests on the server:
207 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi' list --all
209 Enter root's password for vcenter.example.com: ***
210 Id Name State
212 ----------------------------------------------------
213 - Fedora 20 shut off
214 - Windows 2003 shut off
215 If you get an error "Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with
217 given CA certificates" or similar, then you can either import the
218 vCenter host’s certificate, or bypass signature verification by adding
219 the "?no_verify=1" flag:
220 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1' list --all
222 You should also try dumping the metadata from any guest on your server,
224 like this:
225 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi' dumpxml "Windows 2003"
227 <domain type='vmware'>
228 <name>Windows 2003</name>
229 [...]
230 <vmware:moref>vm-123</vmware:moref>
231 </domain>
232 If "<vmware:moref>" does not appear in the metadata, then you need to
234 upgrade libvirt.
235 If the above commands do not work, then virt-v2v is not going to work
237 either. Fix your URI and/or your VMware server before continuing.
238 VDDK: Importing a guest
240 The -it vddk parameter selects VDDK as the input transport for disks.
241 To import a particular guest from vCenter server or ESXi hypervisor,
243 use a command like the following, substituting the URI, guest name and
244 SSL thumbprint:
245 $ virt-v2v \
247 -ic 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1' \
248 -it vddk \
249 -io vddk-libdir=/path/to/vmware-vix-disklib-distrib \
250 -io vddk-thumbprint=xx:xx:xx:... \
251 "Windows 2003" \
252 -o local -os /var/tmp
253 Other options that you might need to add in rare circumstances include
255 -io vddk-config, -io vddk-cookie, -io vddk-nfchostport, -io vddk-port,
256 -io vddk-snapshot, and -io vddk-transports, which are all explained in
257 the nbdkit-vddk-plugin(1) documentation. Do not use these options
258 unless you know what you are doing.
259 VDDK: Debugging VDDK failures
261 The VDDK library can be operated in a verbose mode where it gives
262 (very) verbose messages. Use ‘virt-v2v -v -x’ as usual to enable
263 verbose messages.
264 VDDK: Slow imports and repeated NBD_ClientOpen messages
266 If imports over VDDK are slow, and ‘virt-v2v -v -x’ shows many
267 "NBD_ClientOpen" messages, then you are hitting an apparent bug in
268 VDDK 6.7 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1901489). Upgrade to at least
269 VDDK 7 to resolve the issue.
270
272 Virt-v2v is able to import guests from VMware’s OVA (Open
273 Virtualization Appliance) files. Only OVAs exported from VMware
274 vSphere will work.
275 OVA: Create OVA
277 To create an OVA in vSphere, use the "Export OVF Template" option (from
278 the VM context menu, or from the File menu). Either "Folder of files"
279 (OVF) or "Single file" (OVA) will work, but OVA is probably easier to
280 deal with. OVA files are really just uncompressed tar files, so you
281 can use commands like "tar tf VM.ova" to view their contents.
282 Create OVA with ovftool
284 You can also use VMware’s proprietary "ovftool":
286 ovftool --noSSLVerify \
288 vi://USER:PASSWORD@esxi.example.com/VM \
289 VM.ova
290 To connect to vCenter:
292 ovftool --noSSLVerify \
294 vi://USER:PASSWORD@vcenter.example.com/DATACENTER-NAME/vm/VM \
295 VM.ova
296 For Active Directory-aware authentication using down-level logon names
298 ("DOMAIN\USER"), you have to express the "\" character in the form of
299 its ascii hex-code (%5c):
300 vi://DOMAIN%5cUSER:PASSWORD@...
302 OVA: Importing a guest
304 To import an OVA file called VM.ova, do:
305 $ virt-v2v -i ova VM.ova -o local -os /var/tmp
307 If you exported the guest as a "Folder of files", or if you unpacked
309 the OVA tarball yourself, then you can point virt-v2v at the directory
310 containing the files:
311 $ virt-v2v -i ova /path/to/files -o local -os /var/tmp
313
315 Virt-v2v is able to import guests from VMware vCenter Server.
316 vCenter ≥ 5.0 is required. If you don’t have vCenter, using OVA or VMX
318 is recommended instead (see "INPUT FROM VMWARE OVA" and/or "INPUT FROM
319 VMWARE VMX").
320 Virt-v2v uses libvirt for access to vCenter, and therefore the input
322 mode should be -i libvirt. As this is the default, you don't need to
323 specify it on the command line.
324 vCenter: URI
326 The libvirt URI of a vCenter server looks something like this:
327 vpx://user@server/Datacenter/esxi
329 where:
331 "user@"
333 is the (optional, but recommended) user to connect as.
334 If the username contains a backslash (eg. "DOMAIN\USER") then you
336 will need to URI-escape that character using %5c: "DOMAIN%5cUSER"
337 (5c is the hexadecimal ASCII code for backslash.) Other
338 punctuation may also have to be escaped.
339 "server"
341 is the vCenter Server (not hypervisor).
342 "Datacenter"
344 is the name of the datacenter.
345 If the name contains a space, replace it with the URI-escape code
347 %20.
348 "esxi"
350 is the name of the ESXi hypervisor running the guest.
351 If the VMware deployment is using folders, then these may need to be
353 added to the URI, eg:
354 vpx://user@server/Folder/Datacenter/esxi
356 For full details of libvirt URIs, see: http://libvirt.org/drvesx.html
358 Typical errors from libvirt / virsh when the URI is wrong include:
360 • Could not find datacenter specified in [...]
362 • Could not find compute resource specified in [...]
364 • Path [...] does not specify a compute resource
366 • Path [...] does not specify a host system
368 • Could not find host system specified in [...]
370 vCenter: Test libvirt connection to vCenter
372 Use the virsh(1) command to list the guests on the vCenter Server like
373 this:
374 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi' list --all
376 Enter root's password for vcenter.example.com: ***
377 Id Name State
379 ----------------------------------------------------
380 - Fedora 20 shut off
381 - Windows 2003 shut off
382 If you get an error "Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with
384 given CA certificates" or similar, then you can either import the
385 vCenter host’s certificate, or bypass signature verification by adding
386 the "?no_verify=1" flag:
387 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1' list --all
389 You should also try dumping the metadata from any guest on your server,
391 like this:
392 $ virsh -c 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi' dumpxml "Windows 2003"
394 <domain type='vmware'>
395 <name>Windows 2003</name>
396 [...]
397 </domain>
398 If the above commands do not work, then virt-v2v is not going to work
400 either. Fix your libvirt configuration and/or your VMware vCenter
401 Server before continuing.
402 vCenter: Importing a guest
404 To import a particular guest from vCenter Server, do:
405 $ virt-v2v -ic 'vpx://root@vcenter.example.com/Datacenter/esxi?no_verify=1' \
407 "Windows 2003" \
408 -o local -os /var/tmp
409 where "Windows 2003" is the name of the guest (which must be shut
411 down).
412 Note that you may be asked for the vCenter password twice. This
414 happens once because libvirt needs it, and a second time because
415 virt-v2v itself connects directly to the server. Use -ip filename to
416 supply a password via a file.
417 In this case the output flags are set to write the converted guest to a
419 temporary directory as this is just an example, but you can also write
420 to libvirt or any other supported target.
421 vCenter: Non-administrator role
423 Instead of using the vCenter Administrator role, you can create a
424 custom non-administrator role to perform the conversion. You will
425 however need to give it a minimum set of permissions as follows (using
426 VMware vCenter 6.5):
427 1. Create a custom role in vCenter.
429 2. Enable (check) the following objects:
431 Datastore:
433 - Browse datastore
434 - Low level file operations
435 Sessions:
437 - Validate session
438 Virtual Machine:
440 Interaction:
441 - Guest operating system management by VIX API
442 Provisioning:
443 - Allow disk access
444 - Allow read-only disk access
445 vCenter: Firewall and proxy settings
447 vCenter: Ports
448 If there is a firewall between the virt-v2v conversion server and the
450 vCenter server, then you will need to open port 443 (https) and port
451 5480.
452 Port 443 is used to copy the guest disk image(s). Port 5480 is used to
454 query vCenter for guest metadata.
455 These port numbers are only the defaults. It is possible to
457 reconfigure vCenter to use other port numbers. In that case you would
458 need to specify those ports in the "vpx://" URI. See "vCenter: URI"
459 above.
460 These ports only apply to virt-v2v conversions. You may have to open
462 other ports for other vCenter functionality, for example the web user
463 interface. VMware documents the required ports for vCenter in their
464 online documentation.
465 ┌────────────┐ port 443 ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐
467 │ virt-v2v │────────────▶ vCenter │────────▶ ESXi │
468 │ conversion │────────────▶ server │ │ hypervisor │
469 │ server │ port 5480 │ │ │ ┌─────┐ │
470 └────────────┘ └────────────┘ │ │guest│ │
471 └───┴─────┴──┘
472 (In the diagram above the arrows show the direction in which the TCP
474 connection is initiated, not necessarily the direction of data
475 transfer.)
476 Virt-v2v itself does not connect directly to the ESXi hypervisor
478 containing the guest. However vCenter connects to the hypervisor and
479 forwards the information, so if you have a firewall between vCenter and
480 its hypervisors you may need to open additional ports (consult VMware
481 documentation).
482 The proxy environment variables ("https_proxy", "all_proxy",
484 "no_proxy", "HTTPS_PROXY", "ALL_PROXY" and "NO_PROXY") are ignored when
485 doing vCenter conversions.
486 vCenter: SSL/TLS certificate problems
488 You may see this error:
489 CURL: Error opening file: SSL: no alternative certificate subject
491 name matches target host name
492 (You may need to enable debugging with ‘virt-v2v -v -x’ to see this
494 message).
495 This can be caused by using an IP address instead of the fully-
497 qualified DNS domain name of the vCenter server, ie. use
498 "vpx://vcenter.example.com/..." instead of "vpx://11.22.33.44/..."
499 Another certificate problem can be caused by the vCenter server having
501 a mismatching FQDN and IP address, for example if the server acquired a
502 new IP address from DHCP. To fix this you need to change your DHCP
503 server or network configuration so that the vCenter server always gets
504 a stable IP address. After that log in to the vCenter server’s admin
505 console at "https://vcenter:5480/". Under the "Admin" tab, select
506 "Certificate regeneration enabled" and then reboot it.
507 vCenter: "Out of HTTP sessions: Limited to ..."
509 VMware vCenter appears to limit HTTP sessions and in some circumstances
510 virt-v2v may exceed this number. You can adjust or remove the limit by
511 editing /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg on the vCenter server. Increase the
512 "<maxSessionCount>" field, or set it to 0 which makes it unlimited:
513 <soap>
515 <maxSessionCount>0</maxSessionCount>
516 </soap>
517
519 virt-v2v(1).
520
522 Richard W.M. Jones
523
525 Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Red Hat Inc.
526
528 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
529 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
530 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
531 option) any later version.
532 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
534 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
535 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
536 General Public License for more details.
537 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
539 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
540 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
541
543 To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link:
544 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
545 To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link:
547 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools
548 When reporting a bug, please supply:
550 • The version of libguestfs.
552 • Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from
554 source, etc)
555 • Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.
557 • Run libguestfs-test-tool(1) and paste the complete, unedited output
559 into the bug report.
560virt-v2v-1.44.0 2021-04-30 virt-v2v-input-vmware(1)