Porter command reference
Reference for the Porter command-line flags. Porter installs to /usr/local/sbin/porter and must be run with sudo. Supplying the input flags lets you skip the corresponding interactive prompts.
Mode flags
Specify one mode flag.
| Flag | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
--local | Convert a file that is already on the SC//Reliant host. | Yes, this is the default mode |
--esxi | Stream the disk directly from an ESXi host over SSH. | No |
Input flags
Use these flags to supply values that Porter would otherwise prompt for.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--file <path> | Path to a local .ova, .ovf, or .vmdk file. Skips the file picker. |
--esxi-host <host> | ESXi hostname or IP address. |
--esxi-vm <name> | Name of the source VM. Must be an exact match for the name on the ESXi host. |
--pass <password> | ESXi root password, supplied inline. Used once to install the SSH key. |
--pass-file <path> | Path to a file containing the ESXi root password. Used once to install the SSH key. |
Omit both password flags if an authorized SSH key is already seeded at /root/.ssh/id_rsa. See Running a Porter migration.
Conversion flags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--linux | Treat the guest as Linux. Skips the Windows VirtIO driver injection and the VMware Tools cleanup script. |
--no-drivers | Convert the disk without injecting VirtIO drivers. |
--raw | Use qemu-img for the conversion instead of virt-v2v. |
--virtio-iso <path> | Path to a specific virtio-win ISO to use for driver injection. |
--post-migration-script <path> | Windows path to an existing script already present on the VM, to be run as SYSTEM after cleanup completes. |
Output flags
| Flag | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
--output-dir <path> | Directory where the finished QCOW2 file is written. | — |
--temp-dir <path> | Working directory used during conversion. | /mnt/kvm_backups |
--debug | Produce verbose output. | — |
Examples
Run fully interactively against an ESXi host.
sudo porter vmware --esxiRun a fully unattended Windows migration from ESXi using a seeded SSH key.
sudo porter vmware --esxi \
--esxi-host <host> \
--esxi-vm <VMNAME> \
--virtio-iso /mnt/gold-images/iso/virtio-win-0.1.271.iso \
--output-dir /kvm/<name> \
--post-migration-script 'C:\path\to\validator.ps1'Convert a local export of a Linux guest.
sudo porter vmware --local \
--file <path_to_file> \
--linux \
--output-dir /kvm/<name>