Preparing UNIX VMs with CentOS 8 and Later and RHEL 8 and Later for Conversion to VMware

Before performing a backup that will be used for VM conversion, you must install the vmw_pvscsi driver on certain VMs.

These include the following:

Procedure

Perform the following steps to check if 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 it will be available by default during boot.
  
  if a driver’s line reads m, then the driver needs to be part of the initial RAM disk.
Run the following command to check if the driver is part of the initial RAM disk:
```
lsinitrd | grep -i vmw_pvscsi
```
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 recut the initial RAM disk image:
```
dracut --force --add-drivers "vmw_pvscsi" –v
```
2. 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
```