Migrating from VirtualBox to Proxmox

• Install Proxmox on the Gen 9 server, which will act as the initial migration destination for VMs from the 3 other servers.

2: Transitioning VMs from the Gen 7 Server

• Move one VM from the Gen 7 server to the Gen 9 server with Proxmox.
• Backup remaining VMs on the Gen 7 server for reimporting after Proxmox installation.

3: Repurposing the Datto Device

• Convert the physical hard drive of the Datto AXL3000, which runs the Samba file server, into a VHD using the Sysinternals tool for Windows.
• Convert the new VHD to an IMG and upload it to the Gen 9 server.
• Utilize the Datto device’s chassis to house four 3.5″ HDDs and connect them to the Gen 9 server with a Mini SAS to 4 SATA SFF-8087 cable for a ZFS array.

4: Managing the Custom Built Tower’s Media Server

• Migrate the 2x 10TB media server array from the custom tower into the new ZFS array on the Gen 9 server.
• Set up a new VM dedicated to the media server on the Gen 9 server and forward the 10TB array.

5: Finalizing the Migration

• Once all services and VMs are running on the Gen 9 server, install Proxmox on the Gen 7 server.
• Migrate the necessary VMs and services back to the Gen 7 server as required.

6: Array Configuration

• Configure the ZFS array on the Gen 9 server for optimized performance and redundancy, ensuring the continuation of services like the file server and media server.

7: Testing and Verification

• After all migrations and configurations are complete, I thoroughly tested all systems and services to ensure they are functioning as expected.

Backing Up Data

Before we begin, we need to make sure that all of our data is backed up. In my case, I have off-site cloud backups and local copies of all my data already in place so we don’t need to worry about backing up my data.

Remove VirtualBox Guest Additions

Now that we have fully backed up everything, we need to remove the VirtualBox guest additions from the vm’s. This varies by operating system so I will outline Ubuntu and Windows below.

For Linux:

Run these commands in the terminal on the virtual machine. The advantage of this method is that this can be done at any point before or after the migration.

sudo rmmod vboxsf
sudo rmmod vboxguest
sudo rmmod vboxvideo

For Windows:

• Start your Windows operating system that had the VirtualBox Guest Additions installed.
• Open Control Panel, then go to Programs and Features.
• Find VirtualBox Guest Additions in the list of installed programs.
• Select it, and then click on Uninstall.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation process.
• Restart your computer if prompted.

Converting Virtual Disks

I have only ever converted disks on Linux, but the commands for Windows are very similar. Shoutout to ttist25 on this forum post for helping me out with this process. As they mention in their post, this process does take quite a while depending on how big the disk is, so please be patient.

1. Open a terminal on the VM controller
2. Navigate to the folder where your virtual disk lives. In my case I use cd /home/[username]/VirtualBox VMs/[VM] to access the virtual box directory.
3. Now that we are in the correct directory we can convert the disks.

Convert VHD to VDI

sudo vboxmanage clonehd [virtual_harddisk].vhd [virtual_harddisk].vdi --format vdi

Convert VDI to IMG

sudo vboxmanage clonehd --format RAW [virtual_harddisk].vdi [virtual_harddisk].img

It should be noted that unless otherwise specified the converted .img disk will be saved to the same directory we as the original .vdi disk. You can specify a specified output location by simply specifying in the command like the following:

sudo vboxmanage clonehd --format RAW [virtual_harddisk].vdi /mnt/external/[virtual_harddisk].img

This command would send the converted disk to an external drive mounted to /mnt/external

Uploading Disks to Proxmox

Now that we have the files converted, we are ready to upload to the Proxmox server.

• Download and install FileZilla on your VM controller. In my case that was Ubuntu, so I installed it as a snap with sudo snap install --beta filezilla.
• Open FileZilla, configure the connection, and hit ‘Quickconnect’. This will be done with the config below.

Host: sftp://[ip_address_of_server]
Username: root
Password: [proxmox_password]

• Once connected, I will create a folder under /mnt called vms and mount an external drive. This will allow me to store the disks without taking up storage on the Proxmox server itself.
• I will then upload the .img disks to /mnt/vms. This of course takes quite a bit of time depending on a few factors, so I let this run overnight.