# Preparing UNIX VMs with RHEL 7 or Older for Conversion to VMware

Before performing a backup that will be used for VM conversion, you must install the vmw_pvscsi driver on VMs running RHEL 7 or older.

## Procedure

1. Perform the following steps to determine whether the required driver is built into the kernel itself:

   1. Run the following command:

          grep -i pvscsi /boot/config-$(uname -r)

   2. Look for values of VMW_PVSCSI in the command output.

      If a driver's line reads y, then the driver is built into the kernel and is available by default during boot.

      If a driver's line reads m, then the driver needs to be part of the initial RAM disk.

2. Run the following command to determine whether the driver is part of the initial RAM disk:

       lsinitrd | grep -i vmw_pvscsi

3. If the driver is missing from both the kernel and the initial RAM disk, rebuild the initial RAM disk to include the missing driver, as follows:

   1. Run the following command to create a backup of the current initial RAM disk image:

          cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/[initramfs-$(uname -r).img].backup

   2. Edit the dracut.conf file as follows:

      Run the following command:

          vi /etc/dracut.conf

      Uncomment the line that contains add_drivers, and then add the drivers to the line, with spaces separating each module, as follows:

          add_drivers+="vmw_pvscsi"

   3. Run the following command to go to the boot folder:

          cd /boot

   4. Run the following command to recut the initial RAM disk image:

          dracut -f -v

   5. Run the following command to list the initial RAM disk image contents and to verify that the driver is added.

          lsinitrd | grep -i vmw_pvscsi

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