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Hello there :) As stated in the title, I am trying to migrate linux systems that I have to a virtual environment. I tried Vmware's tools such as converter standalone but that proved troublesome since the space requirements were sub-optimal. I discussed the issue before in this thread.

I will be using rsync to migrate the files, including the operating system. The source pc has this partitions.

I just want the system to boot and to work, I don't really care how, as for space needed on the destination systems, that doesn't matter either, I just need them to work :)

As far as my issue here is, I have created a VMware image and I booted into a tool that would permit me to create the partitions, but honestly, I don't know how. I am still learning linux and the use of the command line so I might be stuck on something stupid. As the good man in the thread I linked to mentioned, I don't need LVM, but I don't honestly know what I need :)

So if at all possible, I want to know how to do this and if anything's not clear (I tend to talk a lot and make less sense, so apologies for that), then by all means ask and hopefully you guys can help.

Regards

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I propose you to try the following approach:

  1. On the server for new VM's download Rescatux ISO.
  2. Create the VM for the first server and make sure it has a virtual machine disk image attached (VMDI from now on).
  3. Attach the disk of your Physical Server (PSD for now on) and the Rescatux ISO.
  4. Set VM to boot from this ISO. And start it.
  5. Select "Rescatux auto detect" from the menu and after loading run GParted.
  6. You'll have listed 2 disks on the top right corner combo box /dev/sda & /dev/sdb one for the VMDI and one for your PSD.
  7. On the combo box select the PSD entry. The partitions on that disk will display below. Also check the "View menu" and see the "Device information". Take note.
  8. Now select the VMDI entry and replicate the partitioning scheme your PSD has (top left corner, sheet icon).
  9. IMPORTANT: The "boot" partition is recommended to not be smaller than 250MB. You can identify it on your PSD because it is marked with the "boot" flag, and is probably the partition at the top of the list.
  10. When done partitioning, click the green mark icon to apply all your changes.
  11. You can now set up all the "flags" needed (such as "boot") by right clicking the newly created partition. You can exit GParted.
  12. Mount both disk's PSD & VMDI on the file manager and.
  13. Rsync is probably not installed, so open a terminal and run sudo apt-get install rsync.
  14. Run rsync '/mnt/source/partition/' '/mnt/new/partition/' (I don't know hot to use rsync sorry). You can also do this steep by running rsync on your Physical Server, but you will have to configure the network before. Double and triple check source and target so you don't mess up stuff.

When done copying files from each partition we can say the disk has been cloned. But at this point if you reboot and boot from VMDI it wont run.

  1. Shutdown the VM, eject PSD (just to be sure things wont mess up). Boot from Rescatux again.
  2. Select "Rescatux auto detect" once loaded, select "Grub" > "Restore Grub" > "Restore Grub!!!"
  3. Choose the correct disk and press "OK"
  4. You are set, can shutdown, detach Rescatux ISO and boot your new VM.
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  • Sorry for the late reply and thank you for the answer :) i just want to make sure i understand, " Attach the disk of your Physical Server (PSD for now on) and the Rescatux ISO ", you m,ean physically connect the drive i assume ? I cannot do that since it is a raid array so i can't disconnect it. Is there no way to do this "remotely" ? Is there a way to recover the tables through SSH and then manually recreate them through gparted in Rescatux ?
    – Khaled
    Apr 14, 2015 at 21:05

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