Converting VMWare VMs to KVM

Question

I have a dozen VMs running on VMWare. I also have a half dozen VMs running on Ubuntu+KVM. I've found KVM much easier to manage (no Windows-only GUI and insanely cheaper), so I'm trying to migrate away from VMWare. Is there any easy way to convert existing VMWare VM's to KVM? Or would I have to install everything from scratch?

Solution 1

Unfortunately, the previous answer lacks detail. Yes, virt-v2v will do the job, but it might be more helpful if some specifics were provided.

So far, the best information I've found is with the RedHat documentation. It's not ubuntu specific, but it might serve your needs:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/pdf/V2V_Guide/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux-6-V2V_Guide-en-US.pdf

Solution 2

Please try:

sudo qemu-img convert *.vmdk -O new-image.img

Then import new img file as disk to kvm using virt-manager. If you need step by step please see the https://www.dalemacartney.com/2013/01/05/converting-vmware-disk-images-to-use-in-kvm/.

Solution 3

virt-v2v is the package required to convert ESX and ESXi based VMs to RHEV or libvirt managed hosts

Comments

[MDMarra]

VMWare what? They make a lot of products.

[Mircea Vutcovici]

@MDMarra From the tags - ESXi

[Cerin]

As I mentioned, I'm on Ubuntu, which doesn't have a "virt-v2v" package...

[David Corsalini]

all the virt-* packages are available for Ubuntu. If you are too lazy to google, you can't blame others.

[Cerin]

No need to be rude buddy. I did Google. I found the source but no Ubuntu package. I try to avoid compiling directly from source, since it ends up being a long-term maintenance hassle. If you can find a package, that would be helpful.

[David Corsalini]

you need a conversion host to use virt-v2v, that host can be fedora or RHEL, it can also be a VM on your ubuntu machine. This host will catch the VM taken from ESXi and place it in a libvirt container on your ubuntu host.