Oracle Notes from Guatemala: How to migrate VMware Virtual Machine to Oracle Cloud (Linux 5 32-bits)

The Virtual Machine I am migrating is an Oracle Linux 5 32-bits, running on VMware ESXi 6.0.0 and the version of the VM is 11. You can see the a Summary bellow:

Just as a mark, I am creating a file with the text "This is a Deiby's File" so that at the end of the procedure we can confirm that indeed is our machine.

Preparation of the VMware VM in ESX:

Oracle Documentation specify the following requirements:

My VMware VM comply with most of them, the only thing to check is the virtio drivers, then first step is to confirm that virtio drivers are available in the kernel:

[root@localhost ~]# grep -i virtio /boot/config-`uname -r`

CONFIG_NET_9P_VIRTIO=m

CONFIG_VIRTIO_BLK=m

CONFIG_VIRTIO_NET=m

CONFIG_VIRTIO_CONSOLE=y

CONFIG_HW_RANDOM_VIRTIO=m

CONFIG_VIRTIO=y

CONFIG_VIRTIO_RING=y

CONFIG_VIRTIO_PCI=m

CONFIG_VIRTIO_BALLOON=m

The three lines highlighted have to be set to "m".

Check to confirm the virtio modules are built in initrd:

[root@localhost ~]# cp -p /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /tmp/initrd-`uname -r`.img.gz

[root@localhost ~]# zcat /tmp/initrd-`uname -r`.img.gz | cpio -it | grep virtio

10521 blocks

[root@localhost ~]#

The virtio lines are not present (you should receive some lines with the string "virtio" as a result). Stop here, otherwise you will get problesm trying to boot your machine once is running in Oracle Cloud. For more details about this booting problem, read the article Not booting disk after importing VMware VM to Oracle Cloud

Since the virtio modules are not present, we have to rebuild the initrd. Before It's recommended to create a backup:

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

Next step is to rebuild the initrd:

[root@localhost ~]# mkinitrd --with="virtio_blk virtio_pci" -f -v /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

Creating initramfs

Modulefile is /etc/modprobe.conf

Looking for deps of module sd_mod: crc-t10dif

Looking for deps of module crc-t10dif

Looking for deps of module ehci-hcd

Looking for deps of module ohci-hcd

Looking for deps of module uhci-hcd

Looking for deps of module ext3: mbcache jbd

Looking for deps of module mbcache

Looking for deps of module jbd

Looking for driver for device sda2

Looking for deps of module scsi:t-0x00: crc-t10dif sd_mod

Looking for deps of module pci:v00008086d00007111sv000015ADsd00001976bc01sc01i8a: ata_generic ata_generic ata_piix ata_piix pata_acpi

Looking for deps of module ata_generic

Looking for deps of module ata_piix

Looking for deps of module pata_acpi

Looking for deps of module ide-disk

Looking for deps of module ahci: libahci

Looking for deps of module libahci

Looking for deps of module dm-mod

Looking for deps of module dm-mirror: dm-mod dm-log dm-region-hash

Looking for deps of module dm-log: dm-mod

Looking for deps of module dm-region-hash: dm-mod dm-log

Looking for deps of module dm-zero: dm-mod

Looking for deps of module dm-snapshot: dm-mod

Looking for deps of module dm-mem-cache

Looking for deps of module dm-region_hash: dm-mod dm-log dm-region-hash

Looking for deps of module dm-message

Looking for deps of module dm-raid45

Looking for deps of module virtio_blk

Looking for deps of module virtio_pci

Using modules: /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/lib/crc-t10dif.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_generic.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_piix.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/pata_acpi.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/libahci.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ahci.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mod.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-log.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mirror.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-zero.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-snapshot.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/block/virtio_blk.ko /lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci.ko

/sbin/nash -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/bin/nash

/sbin/insmod.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/bin/insmod

/etc/udev/rules.d/05-udev-early.rules -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/etc/udev/rules.d/05-udev-early.rules

/sbin/firmware_helper.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/sbin/firmware_helper

/sbin/udevd.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/sbin/udevd

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/lib/crc-t10dif.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/crc-t10dif.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/sd_mod.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/mbcache.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/mbcache.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/jbd/jbd.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/jbd.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/fs/ext3/ext3.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/ext3.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_generic.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/ata_generic.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ata_piix.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/ata_piix.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/pata_acpi.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/pata_acpi.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/libahci.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/libahci.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/ata/ahci.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/ahci.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mod.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-mod.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-log.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-log.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-region-hash.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-mirror.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-mirror.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-zero.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-zero.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/md/dm-snapshot.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/dm-snapshot.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/block/virtio_blk.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/virtio_blk.ko' [elf32-i386]

copy from `/lib/modules/2.6.39-400.215.10.el5uek/kernel/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci.ko' [elf32-i386] to `/tmp/initrd.K10847/lib/virtio_pci.ko' [elf32-i386]

/sbin/lvm.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/bin/lvm

/sbin/dmraid.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/bin/dmraid

/sbin/kpartx.static -> /tmp/initrd.K10847/bin/kpartx

Adding module crc-t10dif

Adding module sd_mod

Adding module mbcache

Adding module jbd

Adding module ext3

Adding module ata_generic

Adding module ata_piix

Adding module pata_acpi

Adding module libahci

Adding module ahci

Adding module dm-mod

Adding module dm-log

Adding module dm-region-hash

Adding module dm-mirror

Adding module dm-zero

Adding module dm-snapshot

Adding module virtio_blk

Adding module virtio_pci

[root@localhost ~]#

Now let's confirm if virtio modules are present:

[root@localhost ~]# cp -p /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /tmp/initrd-`uname -r`.img.gz

[root@localhost ~]# zcat /tmp/initrd-`uname -r`.img.gz | cpio -it | grep virtio

17527 blocks

lib/virtio_blk.ko

lib/virtio_pci.ko

[root@localhost ~]#

Excellent. The VM is ready to be uploaded to Oracle Cloud.

Exporting the VMware VM from ESX:

Follow the instructions in the article How to export VMware VM using Oracle Ravello VM Tool.

Uploading the VM's Files to Oracle Cloud

Follow the instructions in the article How to create an Instance Custom Template in Oracle Cloud using VMware VMDK Files.

Creating the Instance

Specify the name of the new OCI Instance, in my example is "LinuxVM". Then Select the Image by clicking on the button "Change Image", here is where you have to select the Custom Image Template we just created previously, in my example "VMWare Image". Finally Select the Shape for your instance, and then click on the button "Create":

The Instance will start to get created:

After some seconds the OCI Instance will be fully created and ready to be used, you can use the Public IP to test the connectivity:

Verification of the Migration

The basic test, just a Ping:

Create a Console Connection to Visualize with VNC the Desktop following the instruction in my previous article "How to create a VCN in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)"