Proxmox import wiza...
 
Share:
Notifications
Clear all

Proxmox import wizard from VMware esxi


Posts: 2
Topic starter
(@wifi_guy)
New Member
Joined: 1 month ago

Hello everyone, I hope all is well. ย I am attempting to import from esxi some VM's. ย I followed this tutorial which is really well done. ย 

The issue is, I am getting these errors on all VM's I am attempting to import. ย I've had some issues with this esxi server in the past, that's why I am trying to get moved away from it. ย Are there any other ways I can try to move these VM's from this server? ย 

One more thing to note. ย The vm's don't "technically" reside on the esxi server itself, but on a Synology NAS. ย I have verified connectivity between the NAS and esxi server appear to be good. ย I am able to transfer large files back and forth without anything erroring out. ย 

I would really appreciate any input anyone has out there. ย If you need more information, please let me know and I will try and provide.

Production Proxmox server is running 8.3.2 with all current updates installed.

Esxi is running 6.7.0 Update 1 (Build 10302608).

Thanks!

3 Replies
Brandon Lee
Posts: 500
Admin
(@brandon-lee)
Member
Joined: 15 years ago

@wifi_guy welcome to the forums! Thanks for posting this out. I think many are going to start using the import wizard to migrate from VMware over to Proxmox. Let me ask this, guessing you are pointed directly at your ESXi host and not vCenter right? Also, do you perhaps have any VMware snapshots on the VM in question? It sounds like you have tried multiple VMs, but just want to rule this out. Snapshots on a VM will cause this import process to fail with similar errors.

As an alternate way, you can manually convert VMDK files to the .qcow2 format. Here is the overview of that process. First you could either mount the Synology to your Proxmox host and then work with the files that way or you could copy the VMDKs over to your Proxmox host storage and then run the conversion:

  • ย 

Find your vmdk files for the VM on the Synology NAS or local storage if you have copied over
Copy the vmdk files to a temporary directory on the Proxmox server. Convert the vmdk files to Proxmox-compatible qcow2 format:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 source.vmdk target.qcow2

Then you can just create a new VM in Proxmox and attach the converted disk files.

Reply
2 Replies
(@wifi_guy)
Joined: 1 month ago

New Member
Posts: 2

Posted by: @brandon-lee

@wifi_guy welcome to the forums! Thanks for posting this out. I think many are going to start using the import wizard to migrate from VMware over to Proxmox. Let me ask this, guessing you are pointed directly at your ESXi host and not vCenter right? Also, do you perhaps have any VMware snapshots on the VM in question? It sounds like you have tried multiple VMs, but just want to rule this out. Snapshots on a VM will cause this import process to fail with similar errors.

As an alternate way, you can manually convert VMDK files to the .qcow2 format. Here is the overview of that process. First you could either mount the Synology to your Proxmox host and then work with the files that way or you could copy the VMDKs over to your Proxmox host storage and then run the conversion:

  • ย 

Find your vmdk files for the VM on the Synology NAS or local storage if you have copied over
Copy the vmdk files to a temporary directory on the Proxmox server. Convert the vmdk files to Proxmox-compatible qcow2 format:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 source.vmdk target.qcow2

Then you can just create a new VM in Proxmox and attach the converted disk files.

Sorry for the extremely late response! ย I am pointed to VMware. ย I do not have snapshots on any of my VM's. ย I think what is happening the PCI card I am running on is failing. ย I am seeing some packet loss on this server. ย I had one of the ports on the card go bad a couple of months ago. ย The 4 servers that I really care about are DNS servers, but I can re-create them manually. ย It's not a huge deal. ย 

I also have an older Proxmox server I am looking at decommissioning at some point also. ย Those backup and import to the new server without any issues. ย I think I just have faulty hardware. ย 

ย 

Reply
Brandon Lee
Admin
(@brandon-lee)
Joined: 15 years ago

Member
Posts: 500

@wifi_guy No worries. That makes sense on the packet loss you might be seeing. That would definitely cause the process to likely fail. It sounds like you have a plan moving forward. I hate bad hardware as we usually chase a problem in software or config and then realize we have a piece of hardware biting the dust. Thanks again and do keep us posted on the progress there.

Reply