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Suggestions for migrating from Windows Server to Proxmox (startrek.website)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by USSEthernet@startrek.website to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I was wondering if I could get some suggestions from the community about the best way to go about migrating from Windows Server on my homelab host to Proxmox.

Background: Currently running Server 2022 Datacenter on my host because that's what I was familiar with. Using Hyper-V to manage multiple VMs like HomeAssistant and TrueNAS among other things. I have multiple container apps running within TrueNAS. There's an HBA passed through Hyper-V to the TrueNAS VM that has all of my HDDs connected to it. I'm just looking to migrate away from anything Microsoft/Windows.

Way Forward: The only procedure that I could come up with in my head was moving everything off of the NAS to my personal PC if I have the space, or maybe multiple PCs in the house. Back up all of my configs. Install Proxmox on the host, build out the VMs again, then restore the configs and just hope everything works the same. Or, just backup my configs build the new VMs on proxmox, restore and hope the new TrueNAS VM sees the data on the HDDs? I don't know if that would work.

If someone has a better idea, I'd like to hear it. Is there any way to dual boot Proxmox on the host maybe and slowly migrate things 1 by 1? Can you convert the VMs from Hyper-V before I install Proxmox?

Thanks everyone!

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[–] kieron115@startrek.website 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Edit: Also yeah you should be able to dual-boot but I wouldn't recommend it. Linux and Windows bootloaders don't like to play nice with eachother.

2nd Edit: Added the official PVE Hyper-V migration documentation, but that blog covers it in more detail.

3rd Edit: It looks like there are some important caveats when virtualizing TrueNAS, which I assume you're familiar with since you have it virtualized already but I wanted to add the TrueNAS virtualization guide just in case. https://www.truenas.com/blog/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas/

You should be able to migrate most or all of your existing Hyper-V VMs to Proxmox, which would be relatively straight forward. My recommendation would be backing up everything to your TrueNAS (that has the dedicated HBA) then you can wipe your Windows boot drive and install Proxmox. Then you could start by migrating your TrueNAS VM over and passing it's HBA back to it.

Once you have your NAS working in PVE then you could either migrate/rebuild your other VMs, or look into splitting your services into containers (Proxmox uses LXC natively, but Docker is another option.) There are some great helper scripts to get services spun up quickly so you can minimize downtime.

You didn't mention how much, if any, experience you have with PVE/Debian and I know from a friend recently switching that some things are a bit more "difficult" than TrueNAS so hit me up if you need anything. The PVE admin documents will be helpful as well.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Advanced_Migration_Techniques_to_Proxmox_VE#HyperV

[–] USSEthernet@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You should be able to migrate most or all of your existing Hyper-V VMs to Proxmox, which would be relatively straight forward. My recommendation would be backing up everything to your TrueNAS (that has the dedicated HBA) then you can wipe your Windows boot drive and install Proxmox. Then you could start by migrating your TrueNAS VM over and passing it's HBA back to it.

Yeah I thought about this being the easiest way to do it. I just wasn't sure if TrueNAS would come back up and just recognize the disks and start working. I have backups of everything and I've tested restoral. I would prefer to not have to go the backup restoral route as it's more a scorched earth option. My other VMs I'm not really concerned about, it was mainly the NAS.

I don't really have any experience with PVE, but I want to learn. I've been learning about docker containers more recently, I like learning new tech so I'm all for it. My main PC has been running Linux for about 6 months now and I'm just trying to get away from Microsoft in general. Thanks for the info.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I haven't used TrueNAS but from what I'm reading it has an option to import existing pools. If you have spare SSD I would yank your windows drive out of the system and try installing Proxmox on the spare drive first. There's a truenas installation script on that community page I linked in my other post, it says to follow this discussion after it runs. That might be a good starting point.