From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from gate001.proxmox.com (gate001.proxmox.com [IPv6:2a0f:8001:1:32::40]) by lore.proxmox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E31941FF0AB for ; Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:59:17 +0200 (CEST) Received: from gate001.proxmox.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by gate001.proxmox.com (Proxmox) with ESMTP id B058C21640; Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:58:42 +0200 (CEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=telia.com; s=tssemail-202204; t=1788769550; bh=jTt5Lr6/Khmjji5p4dN4bSfnsQ3g5S90cAL0GyDhMvU=; h=Date:From:To:Message-ID:In-Reply-To:References:Subject:MIME-Version; b=ZenNaeYSIyEHOR+jifhcEbrfsZcwPa6jg4Rtc/X65fNWjEjMIwwWfwBcdaSYVAiRZN+T3jKTCGuTY9igPX81Wt0EKenQkjPY5J5NYDZkigdSOFneVV6VEArptwOkvzbsYxWUbqxVuacKFUxGtt5wR10DUJYJTn0bFz42oFXQpZ3bLFw5tpN4hZW0s0N2rLS8QJCMvp4jxe3yDx8vWM7zCUIry+F3bjmY5OTKvEAWI8LcveQawmX3QC4JXM4VS5J2Os4jnEtoi90lBt8Mq85AlKJ0UTwyv/ZylG+XCLPVWWjtVASfNFHUTK/5b65l85dZV9++1BzLk7LqRTnw6FqZOA== X-RG-Rigid: 6A96A95A0032D623 X-Originating-IP: [81.226.88.227] X-RazorGate-Vade: 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 X-RazorGate-Vade-Verdict: clean 0 X-RazorGate-Vade-Classification: clean X-Virus-Scanned: amavis at home.selund.se Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2026 08:20:57 +0000 (UTC) From: Lund Svein-Erik To: Fabien Sirjean Message-ID: <952992346.10391.1788769257095.JavaMail.zextras@selund.se> In-Reply-To: <807a9c32-cc3b-4a93-bf57-4fbce34817b6@eddie.fdn.fr> References: <807a9c32-cc3b-4a93-bf57-4fbce34817b6@eddie.fdn.fr> Subject: RE: Migrating a 10TB VM from ESXi to PVE/Ceph MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Originating-IP: [192.168.9.1] X-Mailer: Carbonio 25.9.0_ZEXTRAS_202509 (CarbonioWebClient - Chrome 144.0.0.0 (Linux)/25.9.0_ZEXTRAS_202509 carbonio 20250902-1300 FOSS) Thread-Topic: Migrating a 10TB VM from ESXi to PVE/Ceph Thread-Index: FUk6gt5T1AKet/kI7dBbR+sYm2MYdA== X-SPAM-LEVEL: Spam detection results: 1 DKIM_SIGNED 0.1 Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid DKIM_VALID -0.1 Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature DMARC_NONE 0.1 DMARC none policy KAM_DMARC_NONE 0.25 DKIM has Failed or SPF has failed on the message and the domain has a DMARC none policy SPF_FAIL 0.919 SPF: sender does not match SPF record (fail) SPF_HELO_NONE 0.001 SPF: HELO does not publish an SPF Record X-MailFrom: sel@selund.se X-Mailman-Rule-Hits: nonmember-moderation X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; loop; banned-address; emergency; member-moderation Message-ID-Hash: NVFLHOG6AK52BXL6SL367YPKT4ICJN3P X-Message-ID-Hash: NVFLHOG6AK52BXL6SL367YPKT4ICJN3P X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:58:27 +0200 CC: pve-user X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.10 Precedence: list List-Id: Proxmox VE user list List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: NFS is the easiest way to solve this.=20 1) Connect nfs storage to vmware (//vmware) 2) Move vm in vmware to nfs storage 3) Remove any vmware snapshots 4) Mount nfs storage on proxmox (//proxmox) 5) Create a identical vm on proxmox with the same sized vmdk files as stora= ge, do not start vm 6) remove vmdk files in //proxmox/ 7) hardlink vmdk files from //vmware/ to corresponding location in = //proxmox 8) Stop vm on vmware 9) Start vm on proxmox 10) MIgrate vm to permanent storage online.=20 The downtime in this move will be the time you stop the vm in vmware to you= start the vm back up in proxmox.=20 Where and what type of nfs storage you use isn't really important as long a= s both proxmox and vmware can access the same export, and that the storage = supports hardlinks. You might need to create the hardlinks on the nfs serve= r it self.=20 -- Svein-Erik=20 --------------------------- From: "Fabien Sirjean" To: "undefined" Sent: Monday, September 7, 2026 9:08 AM Subject: Migrating a 10TB VM from ESXi to PVE/Ceph Dear all,

After successfully migrating most of our infrastructure (300+ VMs) fro= m=20
VMware ESXi to PVE, we're struggling with one last critical VM: our=20
BlueMind/Cyrus mail server (~800 users), with a 10TB virtual disk.

Our setup is:

Source: ESXi =E2=86=92 Dell EMC VPLEX (FC) =E2=86=92 Dell Unity
Target: Proxmox VE =E2=86=92 Ceph RBD (dedicated cluster)

We tried the Proxmox ESXi importer, but I/O performance degraded so mu= ch=20
during the live import that the mail service could not sustain its=20
normal workload.
We then stopped the service to complete the migration, but the import= =20
eventually failed after almost 3 days, forcing us to start over.

Application-level migration/synchronization is not an option, so we're= =20
looking for a block/storage-level approach with minimal downtime.

Since the datastore ultimately resides on our FC SAN, could we bypass= =20
ESXi entirely and temporarily present the relevant VPLEX/Unity LUN to = a=20
PVE or migration host, mount/access the VMFS datastore read-only, and= =20
copy/convert the VMDK directly to Ceph RBD?
Even better, is there a practical way to perform the bulk copy while t= he=20
VM is running, then only synchronize the changed blocks during the fin= al=20
cutover?

Any advice or experience with direct VMFS access, VPLEX/Unity=20
snapshots/clones, or other approaches for this kind of migration would= =20
be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!