This guide will show you a method you can use to migrate a computer to a virtual machine.
In most cases you need a storage to save your disk data to.
This can be an external USB disk, or an SMB share on an external NAS box.
This method uses the software Clonezilla to save your disk to an external storage.
| Free | Needs account | Windows | Linux | License | GUI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | Yes | GPL | No / CUI |
Stable: https://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable
First you download the software Rufus, which you can use to put ISO files on your USB sticks.
Download: https://rufus.ie/en/
Open Rufus, select your USB disk and the Clonezilla ISO file.
Change the Partition scheme to GPT for recent and newer generation computers, or MBR for older computers.
You can determine the correct partition type by observing the BIOS, if it has EFI, or UEFI in it, you will have to change the type to GPT.
Hit start, confirm additional prompts and wait for it to finish.
Here's a wiki entry by Proxmox: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Qemu-guest-agent
That page links to https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_VirtIO_Drivers
And that page finally links to: https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/?C=M;O=D, which is where you can obtain the ISO file.
Here's some handy links from that page:
Once you have the ISO-file, move it to your computer and open it.
Then we run/install following as Administrator:
After you've installed the drivers and agent, shutdown your computer.
Make sure you either have an SMB share ready with credentials, or an external USB disk.
Also make sure you have enough disk space left to store the computer.
Info: The following shows you the steps to store it on an external disk.
Attach the USB stick to the computer that you want to virtualize, power it off, and boot from the USB stick.
The key you have to press is different for each device manufacturer, however you should find this information in the mainboard manual or online.
Once you have booted successfully, you'll be prompted with a screen like in the next step.
Press enter to boot:
Choose your language, for this run we will keep en_US.UTF-8:
Change the keyboard language if you have a different layout. This is important when you enter the password for SMB.
Press enter:
Choose device-image:
Here you choose how you want to save the computer:
local_dev if you want to store it to an external disk, samba_server if you want to store it to an SMB share.
If you haven't connected the external USB drive, do it now and wait 5 seconds before pressing enter:
If you see your disk, in this case it's the 4001GB WD Elements, then press CTRL+C:
Select your external disk as the Clonezilla /home/partimag repository.
Choose no-fsck:
If you have created a directory earlier, you can pick that one, for this run we will just pick the drives root, once selected hit Done:
If everything looks good, press enter again:
Select Beginner:
Select savedisk:
Name it something you will recognize:
Choose the disks you want to save:
Keep the default option and press enter:
Press enter again:
Select No, however if you have the time you can perform a check.
We don't need to encrypt, you can encrypt it if you need to:
We choose poweroff, as we're basically done once it's saved:
Press enter to continue:
Press y to continue:
This can take some time, so sit back or grab a coffee ☕:
Once it's done, you have to press enter and the PC will be turned off. You can remove the USB stick and attach the USB disk to your Proxmox Servers USB port.
Upload the Clonezilla ISO to your Proxmox VE storage.
On the top right click Create VM.
Choose a fitting name, in this case SRV2022, then click Next.
Select the Clonezilla ISO and select the correct Guest OS:
Change the BIOS to SeaBIOS, as there's a bug that prevents Clonezilla to boot on OVMF.
Check Qemu Agent, select the TPM storage, and continue:
Recreate the disk, keep it as IDE.
Also add a new drive with the size of 1 GB, and change the type to SCSI.
This is because Windows can't boot from a device it hasn't seen before. We'll adjust this later.
Click Next.
Choose the resources for the VM:
Click Next.
Here as well:
Click Next.
You can set the Model to VirtIO:
Check the configuration, and click Finish.
Within Hardware of the VM, click Add and click USB Device.
Choose the external disk and click Add.
Start the VM and navigate the same as before until you're at this screen:
When you see your folder containing the backup, use tab to navigate to Done and press enter.
Press enter again:
Press Beginner.
Then press on restoredisk.
Choose the image file:
Then select the correct disk by size:
Choose -k0 and hit OK.
Skip the check:
Choose poweroff:
Press enter again:
Press enter again:
Press y twice to begin the restore:
This will take a while, you might be prompted for an enter when it's done, then it will shutdown.
Wait for this to finish.
Head back to the VM Options and make sure the boot order looks like this.
Enable ide0 and move it to the top:
Also remove the USB Device from your VMs Hardware.
Within your VMs Hardware also change the BIOS to OVMF, and add an EFI disk. Change the Machine to i440fx as well.
Then power on your VM, when you're at your desktop, shutdown your VM again.
Within your VMs Hardware, detach, then remove the 1 GB sized hard disk.
Also detach your disk-0 and, and attach it again as SCSI.
Once configured click Add.
Head back to Options and change the boot order back:
Start your VM, configure the IP address and observe if everything works.
🎉 Congratulations, you have migrated a physical computer to a Proxmox VE VM.
