Jephe Wu - http://linuxtechres.blogspot.com
Objective: Cloning a physical RHEL 5 server to vmware virtual server from scratch
Environment: RHEL 5.1 (physical server HP Proliant DL360), CentOS 5.5 (vmware host server)
Steps:
1. Setup the vmware server 2.0 under CentOS 5.5
Please refer to another article at http://linuxtechres.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-setup-vmware-server-202-under.html
2. Clone physical RHEL 5.1 to vmware virtual server
a. create a vmware virtual environment, use sda as hard disk and boot it up from system rescue CD iso image
You can download iso file from http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
b. make a tar ball from the original RHEL 5.1 physical server
login as root
cd /
tar --exclude root --exclude sys --exclude proc -cvpzf - . | ssh intermediate_server 'cat > rhel.tar.gz'
c. configure IP address, make partitions and change root password
ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
passwd root
fdisk /dev/sda (make sda1 as /boot(100M), sda2 as swap(2xRAM size), sda3 as /)
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda1
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda3
mkswap /dev/sda2
d. start to clone the whole OS
cd /mnt
mkdir sda
mount /dev/sda3 sda
cd sda
mount /dev/sda1 boot
scp root@original_server:/etc/passwd /etc/
scp root@original_server:/etc/group /etc/
note: above scp commands to copy original server /etc/passwd and /etc/group file to the rescue CD environment so that untaring the rhel.tar.gz will keep the correct owner and permission for all files systems later on. Otherwise, you will notice /var/spool/clientmqueue directory will not be owned by smmsp, as well as the group permission for /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail, and so on.
logout then login again
cd /mnt/sda
ssh root@intermediate_server 'cat rhel.tar.gz' | tar xvpzf -
or
if on the same LAN,use
tar --exclude root --exclude sys --exclude proc -cvpf - . | ssh intermedia_server 'cd /mnt/sda; tar xpf -'
Note: if you use RIP 12.3 non-X version, vi /etc/hosts.deny to comment out the last line which only permit localhost to ssh into RIP server, also you might need to vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config to enable root login by using password.
e. modify configurations after cloning OS
cd /mnt/sda
chroot .
modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scritps/ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-eth1 if necessary
modify /etc/sysconfig/network
modify /etc/fstab
modify /etc/grub.conf
cp /etc/blkid /etc/blkid.bak
rm -f /etc/blkid/*
cp /etc/mtab /etc/mtab.bak
vi /etc/mtab (to correct the / and /boot line to have the correct partition name)
vi /boot/grub/device.map to something like '(hd0) /dev/sda'
cd /dev
./MAKEDEV sda
After that, create root, sys and proc directory for cloned virtual server.
cd /mnt/sda
mkdir proc sys root
f. generating new initrd image and install grub
modify /etc/modprobe.conf to have the correct scsi driver, for vmware using sda hard disk, change that file to the follows:
root@jephe # more /etc/modprobe.conf
alias eth0 pcnet32
#alias scsi_hostadapter mptspi
#alias scsi_hostadapter1 mptfc
#alias scsi_hostadapter2 mptsas
alias scsi_hostadapter3 mptbase
alias scsi_hostadapter4 mptscsih
alias scsi_hostadapter5 ata_piix
alias scsi_hostadapter6 usb-storage
then generate new initrd image based on the above scsi drivers (no need to use --preload options to load scsi modules)
root@jephe # mkinitrd -f /boot/initvm.img kernelnumber
error opening /sys/block: No such file or directory
error opening /sys/block: No such file or directory
Note: ignore above errors.
note: you can use commands below to check new initrd content:
mkdir /tmp/initrd
cd /tmp/initrd;gzip -dc /boot/initrd-2.6.22.1-41.fc7.img | cpio -id
Lastly, install grub: (install it again everytime you modify file /etc/grub.conf)
# grub-install hd0
Or after reboot, at grub prompt:
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
reboot
g. reboot
# rm -f /etc/mtab (already backed up as /etc/mtab.bak at section e)
# reboot
Note: if you encountered issue such as getting grub> prompt only , you need to boot into Windows partition, use command 'chainloader (hd0,0)+1' to boot into Windows
# more /etc/grub.conf
title windows chainloader (hd0,0)+1
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