[OpenIndiana-discuss] cloning an OI system to VDMK

[Nikola M]

On 07/27/17 05:05 PM, Daniel Kjar wrote:
> My old hardware is dying and I want to move my system to a virtualized 
> environment.  I have been digging for

Do fresh install on new hardware or in that VM and then do create new BE 
(beadm), right after , destroy it's datasets (under ROOT) and then zfs 
send/zfs receive your working dataset zfs snapshot to a new machine. It 
should work almost all the time. Maybe you would need to install illumso 
loader in target BE after 'zfs receive'.
In doubt, install same OI version you have on source machine you migrate 
from.

Regarding ZFS and it's benefits, I also think it is best used on real 
hardware, to exactly protect you from hardware problems, but also you 
can use zfs snapshots to make timed remote replications and backup, 
wherever you run it.

Also if you use illumos/OI on hardware and use virtualization under 
illumos as the main system (kvm, kvm in zones, VirtualBox), you can use 
zfs volumes for VMs and make shapshots off them outside of VMs. Hardly 
there is the better and more easy way then make snapshots of zfs 
volumes. (zfs create -V )