Using Disk2vhd or VMware vCenter Converter to copy existing win10 installation to use in Qubes?

[Stumpy]

Hi, I have an existing win10 installation which I want to copy and then
use as a template in Qubes. I am sure I asked before somewhere about
this and the only thing i remember about the response was Disk2vhd.

So i am thinking its possible to copy an existing installation, and
hoping its possible to use that image as a template in Qubes but am
really unsure about the details.

Is there a write or relevant howto for doing something like this?

Thanks!

[Stumpy]

Nada?

[Frédéric Pierret]

On 2020-03-03 09:43, Stumpy wrote:
> Hi, I have an existing win10 installation which I want to copy and then use as a template in Qubes. I am sure I asked before somewhere about this and the only thing i remember about the response was Disk2vhd.

1) From where you have win10 installation? It comes from a physical machine or VM? Yes this question from physical is necessary, especially if enabling proper drivers in Windows is needed.

2) In which format? OVA, VMDK?

I would go to use qemu-img for converting VMDK (certainly in sparse format if it comes from vCenter) into raw image. Then, creating a standalone HVM in Qubes with sufficient space then dd from your image to your root lvm partition of the newly created VM.

> So i am thinking its possible to copy an existing installation, and hoping its possible to use that image as a template in Qubes but am really unsure about the details.
>
> Is there a write or relevant howto for doing something like this?
>
> Thanks!
>

Best,

[Stumpy]

On 2020-03-06 09:20, Frédéric Pierret wrote:
>
> On 2020-03-03 09:43, Stumpy wrote:
>> Hi, I have an existing win10 installation which I want to copy and then use as a template in Qubes. I am sure I asked before somewhere about this and the only thing i remember about the response was Disk2vhd.
>
> 1) From where you have win10 installation? It comes from a physical machine or VM?

From a physical machine.

Yes this question from physical is necessary, especially if enabling
proper drivers in Windows is needed.

It would be from a physical machine, and its my hope to then install
qubes on this machine, and then run this win10 vm (along with other VMs)
on this machine.

>
> 2) In which format? OVA, VMDK?

Well i guess it depends, I am fine with whatever that is using vmware to
copy the physical machine to ova or vmdk - my pref i guess would be
whichever is easier.

>
> I would go to use qemu-img for converting VMDK (certainly in sparse format if it comes from vCenter) into raw image. Then, creating a standalone HVM in Qubes with sufficient space then dd from your image to your root lvm partition of the newly created VM.

Thanks for the concise suggestion, i think i got it.

Will get it a try. Cheers

[Frédéric Pierret]

On 2020-03-06 15:24, Stumpy wrote:
> On 2020-03-06 09:20, Frédéric Pierret wrote:
>>
>> On 2020-03-03 09:43, Stumpy wrote:
>>> Hi, I have an existing win10 installation which I want to copy and then use as a template in Qubes. I am sure I asked before somewhere about this and the only thing i remember about the response was Disk2vhd.
>>
>> 1) From where you have win10 installation? It comes from a physical machine or VM?
>
> From a physical machine.
>
> Yes this question from physical is necessary, especially if enabling proper drivers in Windows is needed.
>
> It would be from a physical machine, and its my hope to then install qubes on this machine, and then run this win10 vm (along with other VMs) on this machine.
>>
>> 2) In which format? OVA, VMDK?
>
> Well i guess it depends, I am fine with whatever that is using vmware to copy the physical machine to ova or vmdk - my pref i guess would be whichever is easier.

I don't know how you want to go from your physical windows 10 (unrelated to vCenter) to a Qubes VM. I almost did something like this. The target was not Qubes but KVM(+libvirt) but this is almost the same for Qubes. Here is what I've done:

0) In the windows, enabled the related drivers at boot. First with IDE backend: atapi.sys, intelide.sys, pciide.sys and msahci.sys. I only identified those four for booting the VM and preventing the famous BSOD with 7B error.
1) Used 'dd' for creating a raw image of the physical drive,
2) Created a VM as I told you by using 'dd' from this raw image to an LVM
3) Booted the VM and installed missing drivers

Good luck :)