When using the VMWare convertor utility to convert between VmWare player/Workstation/server VM images to an ESX image, if the VM you are converting is Linux you might run into boot problems (“kernel panic” message) due to SCSI drivers problems.
I found a couple of resources about the problem but none fully worked for me, here is my special recipe:
The configuration I used was: RHEL 5.1 VM, and ESX 3.x server.
- Use the converter to load the image to the ESX
- If you will start the converted image on the ESX you will see a kernel panic message
- Go to VMWare infrastructure client -> ESX server -> vm props -> hardware -> SCSI controller -> change from buslogic to LSI Logic
- Load the vm CD-ROM drive with RHEL5 install disk (also serves as a rescue disk)
- Boot the VM from the CD -> when prompted, enter: linux rescue
- The rescue disk should identify the linux partition and mounts it on /mnt/sysimage
- After getting a prompt enter: chroot /mnt/sysimage
- Backup, and then edit /etc/modules.conf, add this line: alias scsi_hostadapter BusLogic
- Backup the current ramdisk file: cp /boot/init-[version].img /boot/init-[version].img.bak
- Rebuild with new module and overwrite existing: mkinitrd -f -v /boot/initrd-[version]-img [version]
- Reboot the OS.
- Boot from the hard drive – The system will start normally
Weird that VMWare do not bother with their official proper documentation.
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