This article is intended for administrators wishing to convert existing Windows virtual machines, on VMware, across to the format necessary to upload into SvHCI.

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Information

Scenario

Note: Ensure the guest VM is bootable on pvSCSI prior to import

This example demonstrates the copying and importing a Windows 2016 VM, called mc-windows2016.ts.stormagic.com, on IP 10.10.130.107/24 across from VMware, to SvHCI.

BIOS:

Network and MAC address

Base system installed - UEFI, LSI SAS, E1000E (server 2016 template)
Install vmware tools, if not already present, to install drivers (VMXNET3 and PVSCSI) - reboot.
Add a new disk (1GB) on a new controller (pvscsi)
Rescan in device manager to see new controller and disk.
Verify all working after a reboot.
Power Down.
Remove second controller and 1GB Disk.
Change LSI SAS controller to pvscsi.
Boot up in VMware - should boot fine, reboot to verify.
Power down.
Export to OVF, or pull the VMDK via datastore browser

Copying the files

Having created a Ubuntu Desktop based VM converter per the below, however note that altnerative methods will likely work and in addition the qemu-img tools can also be run on Windows.

https://support.stormagic.com/hc/en-gb/articles/19383282138781-StorMagic-HCI-SvHCI-Create-a-VMDK-VHD-Converter-Machine

Enable sshClient on your ESXi host by running the below example:

esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id sshClient --enabled=true

And an example on our system:

[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/662974cc-8dd200fe-83b8-5cb901d54598/mc-windows-legacy] esxcli network firewall ruleset list --ruleset-id sshClient

Name Enabled

--------- -------

sshClient false

[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/662974cc-8dd200fe-83b8-5cb901d54598/mc-windows-legacy] esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id sshClient --enabled=true
[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/662974cc-8dd200fe-83b8-5cb901d54598/mc-windows-legacy] esxcli network firewall ruleset list --ruleset-id sshClient

Name Enabled

--------- -------

sshClient true

We can then SCP both the .vmdk and vmdk flat files across to our converter VM.

scp file.txt remote_username@10.10.0.2:/remote/directory

And an example on our system, copying a VM called mc-veeam-one across to the VM converter on 10.10.130.107

[root@esxi1:~] cd /vmfs/volumes/DS7TB-HDD-M-34/mc-windows2016/
[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/63bd7dce-6a484600-fc96-38eaa736818c/mc-windows2016] scp ./mc-windows2016-flat.vmdk mchristie@10.10.130.108:/home/mchristie/
mchristie@10.10.130.108's password:
hostfile_replace_entries: link /.ssh/known_hosts to /.ssh/known_hosts.old: Function not implemented
update_known_hosts: hostfile_replace_entries failed for /.ssh/known_hosts: Function not implemented
mc-windows2016-flat.vmdk 26% 24GB 66.9MB/s 16:52 ETA

[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/63bd7dce-6a484600-fc96-38eaa736818c/mc-windows2016]


[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/63bd7dce-6a484600-fc96-38eaa736818c/mc-windows2016] scp ./mc-windows2016.vmdk mchristie@10.10.130.108:/home/mchristie/
mchristie@10.10.130.108's password:
hostfile_replace_entries: link /.ssh/known_hosts to /.ssh/known_hosts.old: Function not implemented
update_known_hosts: hostfile_replace_entries failed for /.ssh/known_hosts: Function not implemented
mc-windows2016.vmdk 100% 557 120.7KB/s 00:00

[root@esxi1:/vmfs/volumes/63bd7dce-6a484600-fc96-38eaa736818c/mc-windows2016]

Convert VMDK to RAW.

VMDK Conversion

The vmdk file can be converted to a raw format using qemu-img per the below:

https://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/convert-images.html

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw image.vmdk image.img

And our example:

root@vmdk-converter-vm:/home/mchristie# qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw ./mc-windows2016.vmdk ./mc-windows2016.img

With the .img being the converted VMDK file to upload to SvHCI

Upload RAW to SvHCI, attach to existing VM with UEFI, pvscsi, VMXnet3

Uploading the VM disk to SvHCI

Via the Virtual Machines menu select to upload a disk image, browse to the converted file and upload to the correct pools.

Creating the VM on SvHCI and attaching the uploaded disk

Note the VMware VM CPU/memory and NIC MAC address

Within SvHCI Virtual Machine menu select to Create a Virtual Machine.

Define the Guest VM adding a network adapter, in this instance VMXNet3, to the desired port group and defining the MAC address the same as it was in VMware.

This ensures the IP address stays the same and switches aren't modifying ARP tables etc.