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Migrate from VirtualBox

Migrate Windows 7/10 Virtual Box

(Optional) Preparation

Cleanup disc space and remove all unnecessary drivers:

  • uninstall Virtual Box Guest Additions
  • Download and run registry file: Mergeide.zip
  • Restart VM
  • sdelete -z c: d: e:
  • Enable ClearPageFileAtShutdown.reg
  • Shutdown VM

Now two methods are possible:

Importing only disc

Fastest method: create Proxmox machine and import vbox hard disc to newly created Proxmox VM.

  • Create new Proxmox machine with similar parameters to old one
  • Import disc images (repeat for all VDI discs)
    • As RAW images with all benefits (compression, thin provisioning, snapshots) or rbd or local-zfs storage: 
      qm importdisk 701 WIN7_C.vdi local-zfs
      • 21743 MB VDI compacted file occupied 15,2G on ZFS with compression ratio 1.24x
    • As QCOW2 files on every file storage: 
      qm importdisk 701 WIN7_C.vdi local -format qcow2
  • Connect new discs into machine:
    • qm set 701 --scsi<N> local-zfs:vm-701-disk-<N>,discard=on,size=64G
    • NOTE: discard=on should be enabled for thin provisioned storage to reclaim unused space
  • Change SCSI to IDE/SATA:
    • For i440FX machine: Switch SCSI to IDE: 
      sed -i 's/scsi/ide/g' /etc/pve/qemu-server/701.conf
      • Manually correct numbering conflict with IDE CD-ROM drive *
    • For Q35 machine: Switch SCSI to SATA: 
      sed -i 's/scsi/sata/g' /etc/pve/qemu-server/701.conf
  • Setup correct boot order
  • Add one dummy (small size) hard disc to SCSI controller
  • Enable QEMU Guest Agent
  • Boot Windows, go to Device Manager and install missing drivers:
    • PCI Simple Communication Controller PCI\VEN1AF4&DEV_1003 –> Virtio console vioserial
    • Red Hat VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller vioscsi\w7\amd64
    • NetKVM\w7\amd64
    • (PCI\VEN_1AF4&DEV_1002) –> VirtIO Balloon Driver Balloon\w7\amd64
    • vm generation id (ACPI/QEMUVGID)
  • Shutdown machine
  • Switch disc controller from IDE to SCSI. Edit /etc/pve/qemu-server/701.conf
    • Setup correct boot order

Issues

Can't create IDE unit 1, bus supports only 1 units Q35 machine has only master IDEs. Use sata0, sata1 and so on.

NOT WORKING: Importing OVA file

  • Very slow method, exporting OVA needs to copy all discs into exported and well compressed file.
  • In VirtualBox choose “File” –> “Export Appliance”
    • select to export all network cards and MAC addresses
  • Proxmox cannot import OVA files directly. Please unpack it with command 
    tar -xvf WIN7.ova
    • After unpacking, manifest file .ovf will be available.
  • qm importovf 701 ./WIN7.ovf local-zfs --dryrun --format qcow2
    • WARNING: 
      warning: unable to parse the VM name in this OVF manifest, generating a default value
    • Create account/Login to VMWare page and download ovftool

T.B.C without success, more similar issues described here: