How to migrate VirtualBox VM to Oracle Cloud (Linux 7.5 64-bits)

In this article I will show the procedure to migrate an Oracle VirtualBox VM with Oracle Linux 7  to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as an Instance, check the kernel info:

[root@db12c ~]# uname -a

Linux db12c 4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64 #2 SMP Mon Mar 12 23:57:12 PDT 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The VM running in VirtualBox:

Preparation of the VM:

Oracle has published some prerequisites we have to comply before to export the VM from VirtualBox:

So I am pretty sure about most of them, except the DHCP. After to check the VM I confirmed to used an static IP, so I changed it to use DHCP to get the IP automatically:

[root@db12c ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

TYPE=Ethernet

BOOTPROTO=DHCP

DEFROUTE=yes

NAME=eth0

DEVICE=eth0

ONBOOT=yes

PREFIX=24

[root@db12c ~]#

NOTE: Check that your interfaz is called "eth0" because in Oracle Cloud that's the name your interfaz will receive. 

For example, in my VM I had the interfaz called "ifcfg-enp0s3", so I had to change this.

Next step is to confirm that virtio drivers are installed:

[root@db12c ~]# lsinitrd | grep -i virtio

virtio_net virtio_balloon' -f -v

[root@db12c ~]#

An empty output means the virtio drivers are not built inside initrd, so before to rebuilt it with the drivers, it's recommended to take a backup:

root@db12c ~]# ls -la /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img

-rw------- 1 root root 57899298 Apr 21 17:16 /boot/initramfs-4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64.img

[root@db12c ~]# cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img.bak

[root@db12c ~]#

Then we can proceed to build initrd with virtio modules:

[root@db12c ~]# dracut --add-drivers "virtio virtio_ring virtio_pci virtio_scsi virtio_net virtio_balloon" -f -v /boot/initramfs-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

Executing: /usr/sbin/dracut --add-drivers "virtio virtio_ring virtio_pci virtio_scsi virtio_net virtio_balloon" -f -v /boot/initramfs-4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64.img 4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64

dracut module 'busybox' will not be installed, because command 'busybox' could not be found!

dracut module 'dmsquash-live-ntfs' will not be installed, because command 'ntfs-3g' could not be found!

dracut module 'cifs' will not be installed, because command 'mount.cifs' could not be found!

dracut module 'busybox' will not be installed, because command 'busybox' could not be found!

dracut module 'dmsquash-live-ntfs' will not be installed, because command 'ntfs-3g' could not be found!

dracut module 'cifs' will not be installed, because command 'mount.cifs' could not be found!

*** Including module: bash ***

*** Including module: nss-softokn ***

*** Including module: i18n ***

*** Including module: network ***

*** Including module: ifcfg ***

*** Including module: drm ***

*** Including module: plymouth ***

*** Including module: kernel-modules ***

*** Including module: qemu ***

*** Including module: resume ***

*** Including module: rootfs-block ***

*** Including module: terminfo ***

*** Including module: udev-rules ***

Skipping udev rule: 40-redhat-cpu-hotplug.rules

Skipping udev rule: 91-permissions.rules

*** Including module: biosdevname ***

*** Including module: systemd ***

*** Including module: usrmount ***

*** Including module: base ***

*** Including module: fs-lib ***

*** Including module: shutdown ***

*** Including modules done ***

*** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware ***

*** Installing kernel module dependencies and firmware done ***

*** Resolving executable dependencies ***

*** Resolving executable dependencies done***

*** Hardlinking files ***

*** Hardlinking files done ***

*** Stripping files ***

*** Stripping files done ***

*** Generating early-microcode cpio image contents ***

*** Constructing GenuineIntel.bin ****

*** Store current command line parameters ***

*** Creating image file ***

*** Creating microcode section ***

*** Created microcode section ***

*** Creating image file done ***

*** Creating initramfs image file '/boot/initramfs-4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64.img' done ***

[root@db12c 

Let's check if virtio modules are part of initrd:

[root@db12c ~]# lsinitrd | grep -i virtio

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        29206 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/block/virtio_blk.ko

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        59966 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/char/virtio_console.ko

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        33342 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/scsi/virtio_scsi.ko

drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root            0 Oct  1  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/virtio

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        22230 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/virtio/virtio.ko

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        36398 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci.ko

-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        23582 Mar 13  2018 usr/lib/modules/4.1.12-112.16.4.el7uek.x86_64/kernel/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.ko

[root@db12c ~]#

So now it's time to shutdown the VM and start the export:

[root@db12c ~]# shutdown now

Exporting the VM from Oracle VirtualBox:

Select the VM to be exported:

Click in "File" -> "Export Appliance"

Select the format "Oracle Public Cloud Format 1.0":

Click on the button "Export":

The VM will start to be exported:

Uploading the File that has the exported VM to Oracle OCI:

Follow the steps in the article How to create an Instance Custom Template in Oracle Cloud using VMware VMDK Files. If you want to upload the file with parallelism you can follow the steps in the article Using Multipart Upload with CLI to send a file to Oracle Object Storage

Creating the Instance from the Template:

Once we have the Template created, we will see a page similar to the following image,  then click in the button "Create Instance":

Specify the name of the new Instance and the Shape. In the "Image or operating system" select the template we just created in the previous step:

Specify the rest of the values, and then click in the button "Create":

The instance will start te get created:

Wait until the Instance is in status "RUNNING":

Testing the Connectivity:

The basic test is just a ping to the public IP:

Create a Console Connection following the steps in the article How to connect with VNC to Oracle OCI Instance