[BlueOnyx:25909] Re: CMU migration

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Robert,

> Interested in getting into these new developments and features as well 
> as get my 5209R upgraded, I'd like to spin up a 5211R VM on a Linux KVM 
> host.

Very well. BlueOnyx has come a long way since 5209R, so it'll be worth it.

> I see Rocky Linux on the Downloads page, but only AlmaLinux in the 
> ISO repository?

BlueOnyx 5211R works on AlmaLinux 9, RockyLinux 9 and RHEL9. It doesn't 
really matter at all which of those is used to run BlueOnyx 5211R, as 
the OS is the same except for the branding. AlmaLinux are faster with 
their releases and they have a solid corporate backing by CloudLinux, so 
that's why I prefer them over RockyLinux. I don't want to duplicate my 
work by providing ISO's and VDI's and VMDK's for both, as they're 
essentially the same OS anyway.

But: If someone installs RockyLinux from the official RockyLinux 9 ISO, 
he can then use the manual install procedure to install BlueOnyx 5211R:

https://www.blueonyx.it/5211r-manual-install

Additionally: Rickard Osser from BlueApp has provided a BlueOnyx 5211R 
template for ProxMox that is based on RockyLinux:

http://updates.blueonyx.it/pub/BlueOnyx/ProxMox/

> I've always installed BlueOnyx from ISO. I migrated to KVM some years 
> ago from ESXi and remember converting to qcow2 format to get all the VM 
> features. Assuming the only benefit of using the VMDK and converting to 
> qcow2 would be time it takes to do an ISO install? I may just carry on.

An ISO install takes around 10-15 minutes, but it's the same automated 
install as always: Select the disk layout in the boot-screen of the ISO 
and from then on you're just watching the install carry on until it's 
done. So this is still the easiest way.

Alternatively you can use the VMDK or VDI disk images we provide. This 
is a bit more work. You have to create a virtual machine with whatever 
settings you want. Then you may need to convert the VMDK or VDI to 
whatever format your virtualization engine uses and need to attach that 
disk to the VM. That will then allow you to start the VM. But it'll have 
pretty small disks and you might have to "grow" the disks (via the VM 
configuration) as well as the partitions inside the VM via "fdisk" or 
"parted" and the LVM tools and/or "xfs_growfs". This is something that 
needs a bit of familiarity with these tools.

Bottom line: The ISO is still the easiest way.

> Looking forward to the OpenDKIM implementation on BlueOnyx now, we've 
> always ran primary DNS servers as slaves of BlueOnyx with DKIM being one 
> reason.

Very well. As for migrating your data from 5209R to 5211R? Forget CMU. 
We now have something that works much better and it's called "Easy 
Migrate". The instructions for it can be found here:

https://www.blueonyx.it/easy-migrate

In any case: Let us know if you need any assistance and we'll be glad to 
help.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber