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Workflows: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization with NetApp ONTAP

Contributors kevin-hoke banum-netapp
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This section shows how to migrate a virtual machine from VMware to an OpenShift Cluster using Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization migration toolkit. The following types of migrations are covered:

Cold Migration

This is the default migration type. The source virtual machines are shut down while the data is copied.

Warm Migration

In this type of migration, most of the data is copied during the precopy stage while the source virtual machines (VMs) are running. Then the VMs are shut down and the remaining data is copied during the cutover stage.

Video Demonstration

The following video shows a demonstration of the cold migration of a RHEL VM from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization using ontap-san storage class for persistent storage.

Using Red Hat MTV to migrate VMs to OpenShift Virtualization with NetApp ONTAP Storage

Migration of VM from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization using Migration Toolkit for Virtualization

In this section, we will see how to use the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) to migrate virtual machines from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization running on OpenShift Container platform and integrated with NetApp ONTAP storage using Trident.

The following diagram shows a high level view of the migration of a VM from VMware to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

Figure showing input/output dialog or representing written content

Prerequisites for the sample migration

On VMware

  • A RHEL 9 VM using rhel 9.3 with the following configurations were installed:

    • CPU: 2, Memory: 20 GB, Hard disk: 20 GB

    • user credentials: root user and an admin user credentials

  • After the VM was ready, postgresql server was installed.

    • postgresql server was started and enabled to start on boot

      systemctl start postgresql.service`
systemctl enable postgresql.service
The above command ensures that the server can start in the VM in OpenShift Virtualization after migration
      Console
      Copy

    • Added 2 databases, 1 table and 1 row in the table were added. Refer here for the instructions for installing postgresql server on RHEL and creating database and table entries.

Note Ensure that you start the postgresql server and enable the service to start at boot.

On OpenShift Cluster

The following installations were completed before installing MTV:

  • OpenShift Cluster 4.13.34

  • Trident 23.10

  • Multipath on the cluster nodes enabled for iSCSI (for ontap-san storage class). Multi-pathing can be enabled easily if you install Trident 25.02 using the node-prep flag. To install Trident 25.02 and preparing the worker nodes for iSCSI, you can use the following command

#/tridentctl install trident n trident —node-prep=iscsi
YAML
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Note To verify that iSCSI tools have been enabled on the worker nodes of the OpenShift Cluster, log into the worker nodes and verify you see the iscsid, multipathd active and the entries in the multipath.conf file as shown.

iscsid active

multipathd active

multipath.conf file

  • Trident backend and Storage class for ontap SAN using iSCSI. See the provided yaml files for trident backend and storage class.

  • OpenShift Virtualization

Use the following yaml file to create trident backend configuration for using ontap san storage
Trident backend for iSCSI

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: backend-tbc-ontap-san-secret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  username: <username>
  password: <password>
---
apiVersion: trident.netapp.io/v1
kind: TridentBackendConfig
metadata:
  name: ontap-san
spec:
  version: 1
  storageDriverName: ontap-san
  managementLIF: <management LIF>
  backendName: ontap-san
  svm: <SVM name>
  credentials:
    name: backend-tbc-ontap-san-secret
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Use the following yaml file to create trident storage class configuration for using ontap san storage
Trident storage class for iSCSI

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: ontap-san
provisioner: csi.trident.netapp.io
parameters:
  backendType: "ontap-san"
  media: "ssd"
  provisioningType: "thin"
  snapshots: "true"
allowVolumeExpansion: true
YAML
Copy

Install MTV

Now you can install the Migration Toolkit for virtualization (MTV). Refer to the instructions provided here for help with the installation.

The Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) user interface is integrated into the OpenShift web console.
You can refer here to start using the user interface for various tasks.

Create Source Provider

In order to migrate the RHEL VM from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization, you need to first create the source provider for VMware. Refer to the instructions here to create the source provider.

You need the following to create your VMware source provider:

  • VCenter url

  • VCenter Credentials

  • VCenter server thumbprint

  • VDDK image in a repository

Sample source provider creation:

Figure showing input/output dialog or representing written content

Note The Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) uses the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) SDK to accelerate transferring virtual disks from VMware vSphere. Therefore, creating a VDDK image, although optional, is highly recommended.
To make use of this feature, you download the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK), build a VDDK image, and push the VDDK image to your image registry.

Follow the instructions provided here to create and push the VDDK image to a registry accessible from the OpenShift Cluster.

Create Destination provider

The host cluster is automatically added as the OpenShift virtualization provider is the source provider.

Create Migration Plan

Follow the instructions provided here to create a migration plan.

While creating a plan, you need to create the following if not already created:

  • A network mapping to map the source network to the target network.

  • A storage mapping to map the source datastore to the target storage class. For this you can choose ontap-san storage class.
    Once the migration plan is created, the status of the plan should show Ready and you should now be able to Start the plan.

Figure showing input/output dialog or representing written content

Perform Cold Migration

Clicking on Start will run through a sequence of steps to complete the migration of the VM.

Figure showing input/output dialog or representing written content

When all steps are completed, you can see the migrated VMs by clicking on the virtual machines under Virtualization in the left-side navigation menu.
Instructions to access the virtual machines are provided here.

You can log into the virtual machine and verify the contents of the posgresql databases. The databases, tables and the entries in the table should be the same as what was created on the source VM.

Perform Warm Migration

To perform a warm migration, after creating a migration plan as shown above, you need to edit the plan settings to change the default migration type. Click on the edit icon next to the cold migration and toggle the button to set it to warm migration. Click on Save. Now click on Start to start the migration.

Note Ensure that when you are moving from block storage in VMware, you have block storage class selected for the OpenShift Virtualization VM. Additionally, the volumeMode should be set to block and access mode should be rwx so that you can perform live migration of the VM at a later time.

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Click on 0 of 1 vms completed, expand the vm and you can see the progress of the migration.

2

After some time, the disk transfer is completed, and the migration waits to proceed to the Cutover state. The DataVolume is in a Paused state. Go back to the plan and click on the Cutover button.

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The current time will be shown in the dialog box. Change the time to a future time if you want to schedule a cutover to a later time. If not, to perform a cutover now, click on Set cutover.

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After a few seconds, the DataVolume goes from the paused to the ImportScheduled to ImportInProgress state when the cutover phase starts.

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When the cutover phase is completed, the DataVolume comes to the succeeded state and the PVC is bound.

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The migration plan proceeds to complete the ImageConversion phase and finally, the VirtualMachineCreation Phase is completed. The VM comes to the running state on OpenShift Virtualization.

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