Xen users - Sep 2010 - Migrate existing Windows XP VirtualBox VM to Xen

Hi,

I''m trying to migrate a VirtualBox virtual machine to Xen, but I
haven''t been able to successfully boot it under xen (3.0.1 that comes
with CentOS 5.5). Thinking that the problem was converting the disk
format to a raw format, I tried converting the VDI disk with all these
options:


VBoxManage internalcommands  converttoraw disk.vdi disk.raw

VBoxManage clonehd disk.vdi disk.raw --format RAW

and booting the VM with a live cd and doing a:

dd if=/dev/hda | ssh user@host ''cat > disk.raw''


And using the following xen configuration:

name = "WindowsXP"
uuid = "071a2dca-e016-456e-8a5e-ea23033f1cb4"
maxmem = 768
memory = 768
vcpus = 1
builder = "hvm"
kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
boot = "c"
pae = 0
acpi = 0
apic = 0
localtime = 0
on_poweroff = "destroy"
on_reboot = "restart"
on_crash = "restart"
device_model = "/usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm"
usb = 1
usbdevice = "tablet"
sdl = 0
vnc = 1
vncunused = 1
keymap = "en-us"
disk = [ "file:/var/lib/xen/images/disk.raw,hda,w",
"file:/distros/windows/xp_sp3/winxp_sp3.iso,hdc:cdrom,r" ]
vif = [ "mac=00:16:36:75:32:52,bridge=xenbr0,script=vif-bridge" ]
parallel = "none"
serial = "pty"


But the result is always the same: the Xen guest starts but I get the
"Windows didn''t shutdown correctly" menu, with the "safe
mode" options
and the "start normally windows" option. Any of the two safe mode
options will make the xen guest stop and the start normally will
freeze the guest for some seconds and it will reboot later.

What could I be missing ? for what I have read over the internet it
should be that simple, convert the VDI disk to raw, setup a config
file liked the one I have and fire it up. Also most of topics found on
the internet related to this are more of installation instead of
migration, so I''m out of ideas now.

Thanks.


Cheers,
-- 
Juancho

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Hi Juancho,

did you try setting acpi=1 and apic=1; I''m always using them with 
Windows XP, no idea whether VirtualBox is using it or not, but it could 
be the reason for this error.

When converting VMWare images, a usual problem is that VMWare uses SCSI 
for the primary device and Windows can''t boot from IDE then, but in
such
cases you usually don''t even see the Safeboot menu...

Hope this helps,
Felix

Am 13.09.2010 22:26, schrieb Juan Luis Baptiste:
> Hi,
>
> I''m trying to migrate a VirtualBox virtual machine to Xen, but I
> haven''t been able to successfully boot it under xen (3.0.1 that
comes
> with CentOS 5.5). Thinking that the problem was converting the disk
> format to a raw format, I tried converting the VDI disk with all these
> options:
>
>
> VBoxManage internalcommands  converttoraw disk.vdi disk.raw
>
> VBoxManage clonehd disk.vdi disk.raw --format RAW
>
> and booting the VM with a live cd and doing a:
>
> dd if=/dev/hda | ssh user@host ''cat>  disk.raw''
>
>
> And using the following xen configuration:
>
> name = "WindowsXP"
> uuid = "071a2dca-e016-456e-8a5e-ea23033f1cb4"
> maxmem = 768
> memory = 768
> vcpus = 1
> builder = "hvm"
> kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
> boot = "c"
> pae = 0
> acpi = 0
> apic = 0
> localtime = 0
> on_poweroff = "destroy"
> on_reboot = "restart"
> on_crash = "restart"
> device_model = "/usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm"
> usb = 1
> usbdevice = "tablet"
> sdl = 0
> vnc = 1
> vncunused = 1
> keymap = "en-us"
> disk = [ "file:/var/lib/xen/images/disk.raw,hda,w",
> "file:/distros/windows/xp_sp3/winxp_sp3.iso,hdc:cdrom,r" ]
> vif = [ "mac=00:16:36:75:32:52,bridge=xenbr0,script=vif-bridge" ]
> parallel = "none"
> serial = "pty"
>
>
> But the result is always the same: the Xen guest starts but I get the
> "Windows didn''t shutdown correctly" menu, with the
"safe mode" options
> and the "start normally windows" option. Any of the two safe mode
> options will make the xen guest stop and the start normally will
> freeze the guest for some seconds and it will reboot later.
>
> What could I be missing ? for what I have read over the internet it
> should be that simple, convert the VDI disk to raw, setup a config
> file liked the one I have and fire it up. Also most of topics found on
> the internet related to this are more of installation instead of
> migration, so I''m out of ideas now.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> Cheers,
_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
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On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 3:26 AM, Juan Luis Baptiste
<juan.baptiste@gmail.com> wrote:
> What could I be missing ? for what I have read over the internet it
> should be that simple, convert the VDI disk to raw, setup a config
> file liked the one I have and fire it up.
Where did you read that?
> Also most of topics found on
> the internet related to this are more of installation instead of
> migration, so I''m out of ideas now.
Start with removing virtualbox guest addition first (if you have it
installed on Windows guest) before doing any conversion. Then read
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows , the most important
part being:
- HAL (the easiest way to be solv it is by setting acpi, apic, and
pae=1 as Felix mentioned)
- hard disk support (which can be solved by installing IDE drivers on
Windows guest before doing any conversion).

After that, proceed with the conversion method (only one of the disk
conversion methods should be necessary) that you''ve tried.

-- 
Fajar

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Hi Fajar,

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:52 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha <fajar@fajar.net>
wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 3:26 AM, Juan Luis Baptiste
> <juan.baptiste@gmail.com> wrote:
>> What could I be missing ? for what I have read over the internet it
>> should be that simple, convert the VDI disk to raw, setup a config
>> file liked the one I have and fire it up.
>
> Where did you read that?
>
Don''t remember, maybe a post on VirtualBox forum.
> Start with removing virtualbox guest addition first (if you have it
> installed on Windows guest) before doing any conversion. Then read
> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows , the most important
> part being:
> - HAL (the easiest way to be solv it is by setting acpi, apic, and
> pae=1 as Felix mentioned)
> - hard disk support (which can be solved by installing IDE drivers on
> Windows guest before doing any conversion).
>
> After that, proceed with the conversion method (only one of the disk
> conversion methods should be necessary) that you''ve tried.
>
That did the trick, thanks !!

-- 
Juancho

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Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Hi,

I made a little tutorial on how to migrate a VirtualBox Windows guest
to Xen, based on the help I got here:

http://not403.blogspot.com/2010/09/migrating-virtual-box-windows-xp-guest.html

Again, many thanks for all the help.

Cheers,

Juancho

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Juan Luis Baptiste
<juan.baptiste@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Fajar,
>
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:52 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha <fajar@fajar.net>
wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 3:26 AM, Juan Luis Baptiste
>> <juan.baptiste@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> What could I be missing ? for what I have read over the internet it
>>> should be that simple, convert the VDI disk to raw, setup a config
>>> file liked the one I have and fire it up.
>>
>> Where did you read that?
>>
>
> Don''t remember, maybe a post on VirtualBox forum.
>
>> Start with removing virtualbox guest addition first (if you have it
>> installed on Windows guest) before doing any conversion. Then read
>> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows , the most important
>> part being:
>> - HAL (the easiest way to be solv it is by setting acpi, apic, and
>> pae=1 as Felix mentioned)
>> - hard disk support (which can be solved by installing IDE drivers on
>> Windows guest before doing any conversion).
>>
>> After that, proceed with the conversion method (only one of the disk
>> conversion methods should be necessary) that you''ve tried.
>>
>
> That did the trick, thanks !!
>
> --
> Juancho
>


-- 
Juancho

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