[CentOS-virt] Migrate windows VM from i386 Host to x86_64 host

[Hildebrand, Nils, 232]

Hi,

sounds strange.

Basically a dd should be enough to clone the machine.

I guess the hardware-model that gets through to the Windows-VM changes
when the Kernel-Achitecture changes.
So basically you swapped a 32-bit mainboard with a 64-bit mainboard - as
far as VM is concerned.

So I guess you have to "reapair" your Windows with some kind of
Windows-rescue-mode.

Which Windows is it?

With XP I had some success with booting from an install-media and then
going to "repair existing" after the install-process has detected the
already installed partition.

Afterwards all XP-patches had to be re-applied - though. But all
installed applications were still there.

You'd better try that procedure with cloned data...


Kind regards

Nils
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-virt-bounces at centos.org 
> [mailto:centos-virt-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of James Roman
> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 3:24 PM
> To: Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS
> Subject: [CentOS-virt] Migrate windows VM from i386 Host to 
> x86_64 host
> 
> Somehow one of our Xen servers ended up loaded with the i686 
> xen kernel, instead of the x86_64. The host has one windows 
> VM running on it. The OS partition is file-based, but it also 
> has a logical volume partition assigned for data. We would 
> like to migrate the host server to a 64-bit kernel, which 
> means moving the VM to one of our other 64-bit host servers. 
> We tried simply copying the OS partition and using dd to move 
> the LVM partition to a new host unsuccessfully. I'm pretty 
> sure that dd may not be appropriate when moving between 
> kernel architectures. 
> However, even without the LVM partition specified in the vm 
> config file, we are unable to boot the windows system. It 
> looks like it is blue screening immediately, since we never 
> get a console connection. Are there any instructions anywhere 
> for moving VMs from one host architecture to another?
> 
> Current Host:
> Centos 5.3 i686 kernel 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5 Xen 3.0.3-80.el5_3.3
> 
> Destination Host:
> Centos 5.3 x86_64 kernel 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5 Xen 3.0.3-80.el5_3.3
> 
> 
> 
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