Windows to Linux Migration

Zerto: Windows ZVM to Linux ZVMA Migration (Single NIC)

My previous post explained how to perform a Zerto Windows ZVM migration to the Linux ZVMA in a situation where you have two NICs on your ZVM for traffic separation. But, what about everyone else who is running a standard deployment of Zerto with single-NIC ZVMs? I mean, the process has got to be simpler, right? The answer to that is yes. There are a lot less steps involved since we’re not going to be dealing with additional network interfaces and fumbling around with persistent routing in Windows and Linux, and then remembering we had that in place months, or years later!

Windows to Linux Migration

When thinking of how the migration process works when moving from Windows to Linux, I can’t help but feel that the product team at Zerto couldn’t have come up with a simpler and more elegant way to accomplish this. I mean, its like having a “penguin” standing outside a “window” holding a box, while you full-send all the data held behind that window into the box – and then tell the penguin he is now all things that window was.

Well, that was fun (and thanks to Dall-e for creating that image for me), but realistically, it’s as simple as four main steps (and one pre-req). Also, there’s a video at the end of this if you don’t feel like reading; which will walk you through the migration of both sites.

Pre-req: Windows ZVM Must be on Zerto 9.7U4patch2

Oh yeah, it might help you if you also double-check the Interoperability Matrix to make sure the intended versions of Zerto are compatible with your version of vCenter and ESXi.

  1. Deploy the Linux Zerto Virtual Manager Appliance to vCenter
  2. Download and run the Zerto Migration Utility from the Windows ZVM
  3. Log into the Zerto UI and validate
  4. Repeat for the recovery site

Below, I’ll break down each of those three steps to provide a little more color about what is involved with each one. Trust me, if you prep everything in a way you can simply just move from one step to the next, it’ll all go smoothly and before you know it, you’re done.

If you’re wondering where to start and not sure if you should do the protected or the recovery site first, I usually start with the protected site because if that’s down while it’s being migrated, and you need to perform any type of recovery, at least you’ll still have the recovery site intact. Or you could prefer to migrate the recovery site first. It’s totally up to how you would normally upgrade Zerto when new releases are out. Just make sure you complete one site before starting on the next.

Step 1: Deploy the Linux ZVMA to vCenter(s)

So the very first thing you need to do is to make sure you have all your Windows ZVMs upgraded to the latest version of Zerto, which is at the time of this writing, 9.7U4patch2.

Next, head to https://www.zerto.com/myzerto, go to Support and Downloads, and download version 10.0U2 of the Zerto Virtual Manager Appliance (Linux). This comes as an OVF, so there’s no need to build your own Linux VM. Just simply download the OVF and deploy it as you would any other virtual appliance in that format in vCenter.

Once you’ve deployed the ZVMA to each vCenter, power them up. You’re going to do a couple of things (in this order):

  1. Once booted up, login with the username: zadmin and enter the default password, which is: “Zertodata123!” (without the quotes). You will be prompted to change the password to something more secure that matches your policy guidelines for passwords.
  2. Once logged in, you may see the appliance enter an initialization stage – this may take several minutes, but typically goes pretty quick before it displays the appliance manager menu. Follow the steps in order below because if you start with the network settings, you’ll have to reboot before you can enable SSH.

    ZVMA appliance manager menu
  3. Select option 7 to enable SSH. Once enabled, you’ll be returned to the appliance manager menu.
  4. Press 2 and configure static IP settings for the appliance. This IP address will only be used temporarily, so you won’t need to create a DNS record for it, or anything like that. Ultimately, the IP address of this appliance will be the IP address your Windows ZVM is using prior to the migration. Once you’ve configured your IP settings, the appliance will let you save the settings and then tell you to reboot to complete the network configuration.
  5. That’s it. You are done preparing the appliance for the migration.

Step 2: Download and Run the Zerto Migration Utility from the Windows ZVM

  1. Go to https://www.zerto.com/myzerto and download the Zerto Migration Utility from support and downloads (same place you got the Linux ZVMA OVF). Save the migration utility to the desktop of the Windows ZVM.
  2. Open a Remote Desktop connection to the Windows ZVM. Once logged in, run the migration utility (right-click –> Run as administrator). Oh yeah, get yourself another temporary IP address for this server, because the Migration Utility will need it.
  3. When the migration utility starts, the first screen will have a link to a “read me.” You’ll need to click that link before the “Next” button is enabled.
  4. Click next.
  5. Enter the IP address for the Linux ZVMA and the password for the zadmin account, then click Verify SSH Connectivity button. After that connectivity is confirmed, click Next.

    Migration Utility SSH Connectivity Screen
  6. Now, enter that temporary IP address I mentioned 4 steps ago and complete the rest of the network settings, then click Next.

    Migration Utility Alternate IP Screen
  7. Review the Summary screen, and then click Migrate when ready.
  8. Within a few seconds, your RDP connection will drop you – that’s because the alternative IP has been applied to the Windows ZVM. Just re-connect your RDP session using that alternative IP that you entered. The migration utility will still be running.
  9. Once the migration completes, and says it’s successful, you can shutdown the Windows ZVM. Notice how the screen also includes a link to the IP address that was previously assigned to the Windows ZVM for production use. This IP address has now been assumed by the Linux ZVMA. If you’re using DNS and FQDNs to access Zerto, now might be a good time to update DNS to reflect the change.

NOTE: Do not run the uninstaller for Zerto from the Windows Add/Remove programs. Doing this will delete VPGs, uninstall VRAs, unpair sites, and remove the Zerto plug-in from vCenter. In other words, IT WILL BREAK YOUR ZERTO IMPLEMENTATION. Just delete the Windows ZVM after you’ve migrated all sites from Windows to Linux successfully.

Step 3: Login to the Zerto UI and Validate

  1. Open your browser, and connect to Zerto using the original IP address of the Windows ZVM (see the “Migration Completed” image above for reference) that was moved over to the Linux ZVMA. The new URL to access Zerto is https://[IPorFQDN]. Note, there is no port 9669 after the host name. The appliances uses port 443 for the UI.
  2. Login using the following credentials. Since it’s the first time you’re logging in, you will be prompted to change the password.

    User: admin
    Password: admin

When you first login, you’re likely going to see some alerts. Give Zerto a few minutes – those will all go away. Don’t get impatient like I did, you’ll end up in a troubleshooting frenzy only to find out that it all will settle down if you just give it some time. After all, Zerto just underwent brain surgery, it will need to heal.

While the healing is going on, click around to Sites, VPGs, Setup, etc. If you also selected to upgrade the VRAs automatically, you’re probably going to see a bunch of that activity taking place too, so keep an eye on the vSphere tasks as well as the alerts in Zerto to get an idea of what’s happening.

Once everything settles, login to the recovery site UI and make sure it sees the same things the protected site is seeing in terms of the Zerto status.

Step 4: Delete the Windows ZVM

Once you’ve gotten both the protected and recovery sites migrated to the Linux Zerto Virtual Manager Appliance, you can now clean up – remember – do not uninstall Zerto from those old Windows ZVM VMs. It will break Zerto. The best thing to do is to delete those old ZVMs after both sites are successfully migrated and you have validated that everything works.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment if you have any questions or to let me know how this worked out for you. And if you found this useful, please share it with others who you feel it could help.

Here’s a video to show you how the above process works. Enjoy!

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Simple Lab: Dual-NIC Diagram

Zerto: Dual-NIC ZVM to ZVMA Migration

New ZVM New Me

It’s a new year, and along with that comes a whole lot of “new things.” New things may come in the form of resolutions, new gym memberships, new jobs… you get the point. And while it’s not so new today, Zerto 10 has delivered a new architecture for the Zerto Virtual Manager. So to some, a new year’s resolution could mean finally moving off of Windows, and onto a more secure and capable Linux-based Zerto Virtual Manager.

And if you’re like me, new things make us remember old things. In fact, I had totally forgotten that I wrote an article about bolting on (virtually) a second network interface to my ZVM back in 2016 to meet a network security requirement. Apparently, that was found useful to others, and it has come full circle, so I’ll share how to get that specific configuration from Windows to Linux without breaking Zerto (for too long). You can read the original post here.

The “Good to Know” Stuff

The blog post contains a lot of information related to the tasks performed, so it will be helpful to be familiar with a few things. I also did not write this as an in-depth “how to build your lab” write-up. Also, this is specific to vSphere environments and does not cover any public cloud Zerto environments.

If you want to build a lab to try this out, you can build it according to the diagram below in the “Lab Configuration” section. Then follow my Dual NIC ZVM post to configure your Windows in-guest routing.

Zerto Resources and Documentation

There is quite a bit of information that you’re required to understand before migrating from the ZVM to the ZVMA, and it’s the usual stuff like version compatibility, pre-requisites, etc, etc… So I’ve put everything here in case you need to review or are in planning.

.

The Lab Configuration

Below you’ll see a very high-level diagram of what this setup looks like in my lab if you’d like to build a lab out to follow along. How you achieve the network separation is up to you. In my lab, I didn’t have multiple subnets in each site, so I got creative and used a combination of Windows Defender firewall policies and in-guest persistent routes based on IP addresses. The main goal of this post is to get you migrated from a dual-NIC Windows ZVM to a dual-NIC Linux ZVMA.

What you’re seeing below is that the network interfaces connected to the green lines are all meant to communicate “administrative” traffic with each other. This is the network where your OS patches will be delivered, domain authentication takes place, and/or users will access the Zerto UI. They are also the interfaces over which you will pair Zerto sites.

The interfaces connected to the magenta lines are all meant for VRA-related traffic. This includes things like ZVM management control of VRAs, managing checkpoints, and log collection. The actual data being replicated for protection by Zerto will also flow on this network and is being managed by the VRAs through direct connections the source and target VRAs make with each other. Again, refer to the Zerto Ports Usage link above for more information.

Simple Lab: Dual-NIC Diagram

Windows ZVM to Linux ZVMA Migration

If you’ve made it this far in, you’re likely already running Zerto in your environment in a dual-NIC configuration and are looking to migrate to the Linux ZVMA, and have probably read this kb article. At the very bottom of that article, there’s some text stating that migrating a dual-NIC ZVM is not supported and that the recommendation was to “move” to a single NIC prior to migrating, then add it back afterwards. This is also called out in the Migration Utility Pre-requisites documentation.

What that really means is that during the migration, the utility will not allow you to migrate if there is still a second NIC on your Windows ZVM. I have included the steps below to get past that, but you’re still going to have to build that second NIC on the Linux ZVM post-migration, and I also cover that in detail.

The Migration Steps, In order

Below you will find a high-level set of steps to take to complete the migration. This procedure assumes you have two (2) NICs on each ZVM that needs to be migrated over to Linux, and that you have read the Zerto Migration Utility Pre-requisites documentation. Having some networking experience and being able to configure routing in Windows or Linux would also be helpful.

Tip: Have at least four IP addresses available to use as temporary IP addresses (two per site) during the migration process.

If you don’t want to read through these steps or want a more detailed demonstration of a complete migration, there’s a video at the end of this post that I created to walk you through the entire process. If there is any section that requires configuration text, I will include that below.

Important: Always complete the migration on one site before starting the second site. The steps below will only pertain to the site you’re working through migration on. When you are done with that first site, start again at step 1 for each remaining site.

  1. If this is being done for production – it helps to open a proactive (lower severity) support case with Zerto for visibility to let them know you’re going to start migrating your ZVM to Linux. This way, should you run into any issues along the way, you can call Zerto support and reference the existing case.
  2. For each site that you will be migrating, make sure you upgrade the Windows ZVM to the latest Windows version of Zerto. The last version of Zerto supported on Windows is 9.7U4p2, which was released on November 28, 2023.
    • Again when upgrading, be sure to complete the upgrade on one site before moving to the next. Don’t forget to upgrade the VRAs as well.
  3. Download the Linux-based ZVMA (version 10.0U2, released November 28, 2023) from MyZerto
    • Deploy the OVF in the vCenter that has the Windows ZVM you are going to migrate to Linux.
    • You’re going to need 1 temporary IP address for the ZVMA.
    • After you delpoy the OVF, power the ZVMA on, and login using the zadmin user. The default password can be found in the Appliance Manager Menu documentation.
    • Once logged in, you will see the Appliance Manager menu.
    • Select option 2 to configure a static IP address using the temporary IP address from above.
    • Reboot when prompted
    • After the reboot, log back in and this time use option 7 from the Appliance Manager Menu and enable SSH (this is required by the migration utility).
  4. Download the Zerto Migration utility (version 10.0U2, released December 4, 2023) from MyZerto
    • Save the .zip file to the desktop of the Windows ZVM
    • Extract the contents of the zip file to the desktop of the Windows ZVM
  5. Optional, but recommended: In vCenter, take a snapshot of the Windows ZVM to give yourself a point in time you can recover to should you need to.
  6. Open an RDP connection to the ZVM open the folder that contains the migration utility.
    • Before you run the migration utility:
      • You will need 1 temporary IP address for this Windows ZVM.
    • Because the migration utility doesn’t support migration when there are two NICs on the Windows ZVM, you will need to disable the second NIC.
      • Go to the Network Connections in Windows.
      • Right-click on and disable the second NIC. This NIC will stay disabled throughout the rest of the process. The migration utility will not do anything to this second NIC.
    • Run the migration utility entering the required inputs throughout the wizard.
    • At the summary screen, un-check the box to Upgrade VRAs because the VRAs reside on the network managed by your second NIC, you won’t be able to get to them, so it’s best to wait until you’ve re-applied that second NIC on the ZVMA after the migration has been completed.
    • Once the migration utility starts to run, you will get disconnected from your RDP session. This is normal because the IP address has been changed.
    • Log back in to the Windows ZVM via RDP using the alternative IP address you provided.
    • The migration utility will still be running.
    • Exit when the migration completes.
    • If the migration succeeded, shutdown the Windows ZVM that you have just migrated. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNINSTALL ZERTO FROM THIS WINDOWS ZVM.
      • If the migration doesn’t succeed, the utility will actually rollback the changes. If you don’t wish to proceed, re-enable that second NIC after the original IP address is re-instated to the Windows ZVM (original IP re-instatement will be done by the migration utility).
        • More importantly, if you encounter the error in the image below, it is not a show-stopper. This check can be bypassed, however, you will need to contact Zerto support to obtain the necessary fix. Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to post that fix publicly.

          Zerto Migration Utility Error - vCenter Peer Connectivity Check.  Contact support for the fix.
  7. Next, we will need to work with the Linux ZVMA, so open up either the vSphere console or a PuTTy session to the ZVMA. Remember, after successful completion of the migration utility, the IP address for the ZVMA will be the original IP address that the Windows ZVMA had.
  8. Once logged onto the ZVMA, you’ll see the appliance manager menu. Use option 1 to display the current network settings. You’ll see that the primary IP address is the old IP address of the Windows ZVM. Take note of the Primary NIC Name, as this will be helpful to know when we configure the second NIC.

    ZVMA appliance manager menu
    Network details
  9. Press enter to return to the main menu.
  10. Because we have not yet added the second virtual NIC to the ZVMA, select option 5 to shutdown the appliance.
  11. Once the appliance is shutdown, edit the VM settings and add a second virtual network adapter, and put it on the network that the old Windows ZVM secondary NIC was on. Save the VM settings and power on the ZVMA.
  12. Log back in to the ZVMA, and select option ‘0’ to Exit to the Shell. We will now start configuring the second NIC. The steps we will take are also listed in this KB article, so you can follow along with that to get your second NIC configured and saved. The screenshot below will show the format to use when entering the NIC settings since they are not formatted in the KB article.

    /etc/network/interfaces config file contents
  13. Once you’ve saved the configuration file and exited nano, we will configure the persistent routing required to make this new NIC route traffic to your replication network correctly (similar to what you have done on your Windows ZVM, but because it’s Linux, it’s a bit different).

    If you are watching the my video on this - you will need to skip toward the end (22:28) to watch the routing configuration section. In this write-up, this is the point where you will be configuring routing.

    While there are different ways to create the routing in Linux, the steps below will ensure they are persistent through reboots of the appliance.
  14. From the shell, we’re going to first create a routing table to use in later steps:

    sudo nano /etc/iproute2/rt_tables
  15. In the rt_tables file, add a line to create a routing table to use. Follow the format in the image below. The number you use can be anything, but must be unique – don’t use the same number as any existing entries. The name can be anything you want it to be, just remember both the number and name, because it will be needed in the next steps.

    entry to add to rt_tables
  16. Use CTRL+O to write out (save) the file, then CTRL+X to exit nano.
  17. Now we’re going to go back in to the /etc/network/interfaces file and add our routing configuration.

    sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
  18. Go to the end of the file and add the following lines. Replace “100 zertoens224” and any instance of “zertoens224” with whatever you used in the previous step to create the routing table.

    There’s also an image for you to reference at the end of this step:

    Use this if you want to route to specific IP addresses:

    #create the routing table on boot for the rules to use
    post-up echo "100 zertoens224" >> /etc/iproute2/rt_tables
    #create the ip rule for this interface and add it to the table
    post-up ip rule add from [your ens224 IP address] table zertoens224
    post-up ip route add [IP Address of the VRA] dev ens224 table zertoens224
    post-up ip route add [IP Address of the VRA] dev ens224 table zertoens224
    [add more lines as needed]


    Use this if you want to route to entire subnet(s) – replace [0.0.0.0/24] with your own network:

    #create the routing table on boot for the rules to use
    post-up echo "100 zertoens224" >> /etc/iproute2/rt_tables
    #create the ip rule for this interface and add it to the table
    post-up ip rule add from [your ens224 IP address] table zertoens224
    post-up ip route add [0.0.0.0/24] dev ens224 table zertoens224


    routing configuration in /etc/network/interfaces file
  19. Use CTRL+O to write out (save) the file. Use CTRL+X to exit nano.
  20. At the shell type appliance-manager to return to the appliance manager.
  21. Select option ‘4’ to reboot the ZVMA.
  22. To verify the settings, log back into the ZVMA, and select ‘1’ from the appliance manager to show the current configuration file contents for the network. You will see all the new routing entries in there.
  23. To test connectivity, you can run ping -R [destination VRA IP address] from the shell and you’ll see what interface the ping goes out of and returns on (example image below).

    testing the routing configuration using ping -R
  24. You can now exit the shell and close your session with the ZVMA.
  25. Log onto the Zerto UI at https://[PrimaryIPaddressOfZVMA]

    Username: admin
    Password: admin
  26. Since this is the first time you’re logging into the Zerto UI on the ZVMA, you will be required to change the password, so set it to something appropriate for your environment or to meet your password requirements.
  27. Verify the dashboard shows everything as healthy – just note that because we just added that second NIC, it might take a few minutes for things to right themselves, so you might see some alerts regarding site connectivity. Because the primary NIC was online, it’s unlikely at this point you’d see a site connectivity alert.
  28. Go to the Setup tab, and you will notice that the VRAs all state that there is an upgrade available. At this time, you can start upgrading the VRAs.
  29. After all VRAs are upgraded, monitor Zerto to make sure things are returning to green/normal. If you see any issues, contact Zerto support and reference your support case opened in Step 1.
  30. Once everything returns to “normal” you can now turn your attention to your second site and go back to step 1 in this procedure to repeat the process until you’ve completed the migration in each environment/site.

Summary

I get it, change isn’t always welcomed, but without change and without innovation, we become stagnant and comfortable with accepting what’s “normal.” Hopefully, the past few years have changed our impression of change and what’s “normal.” I figure, since it’s also a new year, let’s meet some new challenges and overcome them clear any obstacles for the year, so we can keep moving forward!

With planning and reading up on the documentation to perform the migration from the Windows ZVM to the Linux ZVMA, the process is very straightforward. My recommendation is to gather all the pre-requisites, and verify that you meet all the version requirements prior to getting started for the most efficient route to completion. Its also helpful if you are fortunate enough to have a lab environment to go through this at least once to see how it works for yourself and document any differences in your own environment that need to be accounted for before pulling the trigger on this migration.

If you’ve performed the migration, or have any questions before you do, please leave a comment below, or in the video comments on YouTube (video below). Thanks for reading, and if you’ve found this useful or know anyone who could benefit from this, please share!

Thanks! -G

The Video

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