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Converting Disks from VMDK to QCOW2

Perform the following procedure to convert disks used by an ESXi virtual machine into the format suitable for use with a KVM virtual machine.

Before you begin

You will need a Linux host with a qemu-img utility installed. Use the following command to install the utility on Fedora-based systems:

dnf install qemu-img

  1. Shut down the ESXi virtual machine running OpenVMS x86-64.

    VSI does not recommend converting images that are currently in use by a live system. If the system is running heavy I/O load, performing disk operations may result in damaged data/system.

  2. Execute the following command to convert the disk used on an ESXi virtual machine to the qcow2 or raw (.img) format used by KVM: 

    qemu-img convert -p -f vmdk -O qcow2 esxi-disk-name.vmdk kvm-disk-name.qcow2 -o preallocation=full

  3. Upload the created .qcow2 disk file to the KVM host:

    scp kvm-disk-name.qcow2 root@kvm-host-ip:/path/to/disk/location

  4. Attach the converted disk to your KVM virtual machine as described in Attaching Disks to an Existing Virtual Machine.

  5. Optionally, map the converted disk to a controller of your choice. See Mapping Controllers to Storage Devices on KVM for information on how to do so.

  6. Start your VM and make sure that the image is readable.

  7. From the BOOTMGR> prompt, issue DEVICE. The disk should be listed as a boot device, not a data disk.

Next Steps

If you are planning to use this disk as a system disk on a node in a cluster, perform additional configuration:

  1. Follow the steps described in the Rename OpenVMS Node article to change the SCSNODE and SCSSYSTEMID identifiers.

  2. Reconfigure DECnet by running the configuration script and specifying the new DECnet name and an address of your choice. Refer to the Configuring Network section in the DECnet Networking Manual for more information.

  3. Change IPCI settings if you use OpenVMS Cluster over IP.