virtualization.info

Anders Ahl, a VMware NG user, published an interesting how-to for Red Hat Linux machine (from 7.0 to 9.0 families) migration from physical to virtual. Here it is:

1. Ghost the machine (at least the boot and root systems) 2. Restore it in a VM. 3. Boot on the appropriate RedHat CD (preferably an .iso of it...), using the "linux rescue" option. 4. chroot to your system (In the case of RedHat prior to version 8.0, you can use the RedHat 8 CD in most cases as older CD versions don't support this feature without some tweaking...) 5. Run kudzu to remove old devices and find the new ones. (or manually edit your /etc/modules.conf file, which is the most important since it includes your scsi-device) 6. Create a new init using mkinitrd on your kernel-version. (Example: /sbin/mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img 2.2.12-20) 7. Keep your fingers crossed and reboot your VM. 8. Re-configure your NICs after installing the VMware-tools.

Nice job Ahl! Many thanks!