Automate Using virt-v2v with Oracle Linux Automation Manager

Introduction

Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager is a server virtualization management platform you can easily deploy to configure, monitor, and manage an Oracle Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) environment. If you are already leveraging other virtualization solutions like VMware and are interested in migrating existing virtual machines from a VMware environment to Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager, a tool named virt-v2v can be used.

You can combine the virt-v2v tool with Oracle’s automation solution, Oracle Linux Automation Manager. It helps minimize the need for human intervention during migrations.

Let’s explore and demonstrate how to automate the migration of existing VMs running in a VMware environment to Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager using Oracle Linux Automation Manager.

Objectives

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

Prerequisites

Set Up Resources

Credentials

Create a machine credential that includes root access to the KVM host, where the playbook runs virt-v2v.

Machine Credential

Enter admin-level credentials for VMware VCenter to allow the shutting down of VMs in the VMware environment.

VMware Credential

Inventory

Navigate to Resources, Inventories, and then select the Add inventory option after clicking the Add button. After creating the Inventory, add a Host containing the KVM host’s FQDN or IP address.

Project

Create a new or use an existing manual or SCM-based project. Write and add the following playbook to the project.


- name: Migrating VMs
  hosts: all
  vars:
    vcenter_hostname: '{{ lookup("env","VMWARE_HOST") }}'
    vcenter_username: '{{ lookup("env","VMWARE_USER") }}'
    vcenter_password: '{{ lookup("env","VMWARE_PASSWORD") }}'
  tasks:  
    - name: Set the state of a virtual machine to poweroff
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_powerstate:
         hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
         username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
         password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
         folder: "/{{ vmware_dc  }}/vm/"
         name: "{{ item }}"
         state: powered-off
      delegate_to: localhost
      register: deploy
      loop: "{{ vm_name.split(',') }}"

    - name: Save OLVM Admin  password
      copy:
        content: "{{ olvm_password }}"
        dest: /tmp/olvm-admin-password
    - name: Save VMware Admin password
      copy:
        content: "{{ vmware_password }}"
        dest: /tmp/vmware-admin-password

    - name: Ensure virt-v2v is installed
      dnf:
       name: virt-v2v
       state: present
       
    - name: Gathering Fingerprint
      shell: "openssl s_client -connect {{ vcenter_host }}:443 2> /dev/null | openssl x509 -in /dev/stdin - fingerprint -shal -noout | grep -oP  '(?<=SHA1 Fingerprint=).*'"
      register: vcenter_thumbprint


    - name: Migrating
      command: "virt-v2v -ic vpx://VSPHERE.LOCAL%5c{{ vcenter_user }}@{{ vcenter_hostname }}/{{ vmware_dc }}/{{ vmware_cl }}/{{ esx_host }}?no_verify=1 -ip /tmp/vmware-admin-password {{ item  }} -io vddk-libdir=/usr/local/vmware-vix-disklib-distrib -it vddk -io vddk-thumbprint={{ vcenter_thumbprint.stdout }} -o rhv-upload -oc https://{{ olvm_fqdn }}/ovirt-engine/api -op /tmp/olvm-admin-password -os {{ olvm_storagedomain }} -of qcow2 -oo rhv-cafile=/root/v2v/ca.pem -oo rhv-direct -oo rhv-cluster={{ olvm_cluster}} --verbose --network {{ olvm_network }}"
      loop: "{{ vm_name.split(',') }}"
      async: 0
      poll: 5
      environment:
          LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND: "direct"

Execution Envrionment

Part of the playbook involves interacting with the VMware environment. Hence, building a customized execution environment, including the VMware collections, is required.

Refer to the Private Automation Hub and Builder Utility tutorials for more details.

Templates

Next, we need to create a template using all the resources we created above. Select the KVM host Inventory, the KVM host machine and VMware VCenter Credentials, our new execution environment with the VMware collections included, and the migration playbook.

You can get more detailed output during the migration by increasing the template verbosity setting.

Verbosity

Surveys

Surveys set extra variables for the playbook similar to what ‘Prompt for Extra Variables’ does but in a user-friendly question-and-answer way while also allowing for user input validation.

From the Template panel, click the Survey tab. Then click the Add button to create a new survey.

A similar dialogue box appears, where you fill in the mandatory arguments.

Survey Question

Similarly, create surveys for each extra variable used in the playbook.

Question Answer Variable Name Answer Type
What is the name of the VM(s) to migrate vm_name Text
Enter the name of the Vsphere User vcenter_user Text
Enter VMware Adnin Password vmware_password Password
Source Data Center name from VMware vmware_dc Text
Cluster name from VMware vmware_cl Text
IP/FQDN of ESX host where VM is running esx_host Text
IP/FQDN of VCenter vcenter_host Text
Enter the FQDN of OLVM olvm_fqdn Text
Enter the Target Storage domain from OLVM olvm_storagedomain Text
Enter the Cluster name from OLVM olvm_cluster Text
Enter the network name from OLVM olvm_network Text
Enter the admin password for OLVM olvm_password Password

Once you create the surveys, click the launch icon, and a dialogue box will appear with the questions created.

Surveys

After populating the surveys with specific details about your environment, click next and launch the template.

Next Steps

While this blog post details the instructions on how to migrate VMs from VMware to Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. The above tutorial helps potentially eliminate the need for users to log in to the KVM hosts and manually input values for each migration, reducing errors and saving time. The virt-v2v tool is semi-automated when run on its own, but here we show it can be fully automated using Oracle Linux Automation Manager.

More Learning Resources

Explore other labs on docs.oracle.com/learn or access more free learning content on the Oracle Learning YouTube channel. Additionally, visit education.oracle.com/learning-explorer to become an Oracle Learning Explorer.

For product documentation, visit Oracle Help Center.