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Hi Richard and Pino,

I'd like to add a bit more detail on the 'virt-v2v may install a new kernel' [1] topic for the RHEL6 V2V Guide, and am hoping you can help with some questions...

* In what situation would virt-v2v install a new kernel? Is it only when converting a VM using a Xen para-virtualized kernel? Also, I came across the following bit of info later in the guide; is it correct, and is this only circumstance when the new kernel install would happen?:

"If your guest uses a Xen para-virtualized kernel (it would be called something like kernel-xen or kernel-xenU), virt-v2v will attempt to install a new kernel during the conversion process. You can avoid this requirement by installing a regular kernel, which will not reference a hypervisor in its name, alongside the Xen kernel prior to conversion. You should not make this newly installed kernel your default kernel, because Xen will not boot it. virt-v2v will make it the default during conversion."

* Is there any way the user can opt out of the new kernel installation, ie. installing virtIO drivers on the existing kernel, etc?

Many thanks,
Dayle

[1] ie. Step 1 in https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html-single/V2V_Guide/index.html#idm37606992

Dayle, do you really want to update the documentation for virt-v2v
in RHEL 6?  We are strongly encouraging everyone to move to the
RHEL 7 version (virt-v2v-1.28.1), and will soon publish an appliance
that RHEL 6 customers can use (for free) to run the new virt-v2v on
their existing RHEL 6 systems.

I am inclined to close this as WONTFIX.

-----

For the old version of virt-v2v:

The paragraph "If your guest ..." is accurate for old virt-v2v.

In old virt-v2v you can opt out of kernel installation by editing
the configuration file, but if you do that, conversion will just
fail.  Fundamentally you need a non-Xen kernel in order to run
guests on KVM, so if they are stuck with a particular Xen kernel
there's no way the guest can be made to work on KVM.

-----

For the new (RHEL 7) version of virt-v2v:

It never installs a new kernel.  Instead it checks the already
installed kernels.  If none of them is suitable, you'll get an error
message and conversion will fail.  If a kernel is suitable but it
is not the currently selected boot kernel, then virt-v2v will
change the selected boot kernel to the suitable one.

We also publish guidance in the manual about the minimum
versions of kernels and other packages required:
http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v.1.html#xen-paravirtualized-guests
http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v.1.html#enabling-virtio