P2V Technology of physical system migration virtualization

The first thing after the enterprise builds the virtualization platform must be to transfer the existing server application business to the virtual server, which is the first step of the virtualization consolidation server and one of the basic functions of the Virtualization program: P2V conversion function.

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The first thing after the enterprise builds the virtualization platform must be to transfer the existing server application business to the virtual server, which is the first step of the virtualization consolidation server and one of the basic functions of the Virtualization program: P2V conversion function. The existing physical server operating system together with all the applications and the hard disk has been stored on the entire package of documents transferred to the built-up virtualization platform, no longer the rules of the installation of the system installed applications, step-by-stage adjustment of the local network, the whole process is a bit like a PC on a key ghost system, The whole system can be relocated to new hardware. The deployment of the virtual machine is very convenient, the original physical server application does not need to pause for too long time to continue to work on the virtual platform.

But the virtualization P2V is not ghost, the process of migration is more like the OS operating system from the hardware drive stripped and overhead to the virtual layer, the virtual layer will take over the hardware driver, and the hardware resources, such as: storage disk, processor, Key components such as memory and NICs are virtualized as OS-approved and can continue to be provisioned using virtual resources. The editor had heard in a seminar that a virtualization expert had summed up the system migration process as "a process of deceiving the operating system," and thought it was P2V, which seemed to be a by fraud.

Take the data center and server virtualization technology giant VMware as an example, P2V by its dedicated converter conversion program to perform the migration, the main methods of operation are two, one is to use the VMware Converter carrier CD to do BootCD, The boot server boots into the virtualized migration environment of Linuxkernel, and the other is using the Migration component program in Vcenter server.

The following is an example of the ESX4 platform, a simple diagram of the vcenter server as the management side of the P2V process, simple and convenient to start the first step of virtualization.

VCenter Server Installation Interface

Installing the Vcenter Server default installation does not include converter and needs to be installed separately after installing Vcenter server as a component of Vcenter server, combined with vcenter Server management functions for virtual or physical server migrations.

Options for importing computers

After the installation is complete, there is an "import computer" option in the operation options for the host.

Converter can do more than just p2v,v2v, and even foreign virtual disk formats, including Microsoft VIRTUALPC and VirtualServer, are converted into files that can be used by VMware in a format.

Powerful converter

Converter can do more than just P2V, or you can V2V or a system image backed up with a third-party system Backup tool or a virtual machine file can be imported directly onto the ESX host.

Start P2V first to log on to the migrated target system

Primary objects for Migration

The so-called migration, in fact, the original system disk storage file data, along with the memory of the paging file together, so the login system is a necessary step, log in after you can see the disk information. For these migrated objects, we can make our own choice, we can also compress the disk, the original blank space to be deleted, the less disk file volume, the migration time will be shorter. Note that the migrated disk must contain a system boot partition, which can be migrated without the system partition, but the final result is that the virtual opportunity cannot be used.

Define the source data (the migrated object) then the target host is specified, we can choose to migrate this source to any of the VC control ESX host above, in general, the main criterion is the host of available resources, if the use of shared storage, it is mainly to consider the ESX host CPU and memory load pressure.

Select target Host

Network is a very important system setup

P2V process will copy the original physical machine network configuration, but also to the virtual machine to add the number of network cards required, which is one of the advantages of virtualization, adding virtual "hardware" will be extremely convenient, neither purchase nor Plug and unplug.

Last step of Setup

Define the above settings, P2V program can start, we can choose to start immediately, you can also set an appropriate time, the server can be down or the host pressure is small when the process.

P2V start is a waiting scene, depending on the size of the migration data and network bandwidth.

The migration process of P2V

Network data traffic for the migration process

The P2V migration is not exactly equivalent to a file copy, which accounts for up to 10% of the bandwidth of the gigabit network from the traffic.

P2V completed

After the P2V is finished, the migrated system can already start running on the ESX virtual host. Virtual opportunities After starting a migration are required to activate the system, because after the physical machine conversion is complete, all hardware is replaced with virtual hardware when the physical machine is converted to virtual machines, as long as the internet is activated. At this time the virtual machine SID and IP address will be the same as the original physical machine, the other two systems at the same time the host name or IP conflicts, to get rid of one of the information can be.

The existing physical server operating system together with all the applications and the storage of the hard disk on the stored document data package transferred to the built-up virtualization platform, no longer install the system installed application, adjust the local network, you can move the whole system to new hardware. The deployment of the virtual machine is very convenient, the original physical server application does not need to pause for too long time to continue to work on the virtual platform.

P2V Technology of physical system migration virtualization