Vrtmv

Vrtmv reverse-engineers Linux VMs from disk images and produces Ansible roles that rebuild an equivalent workload on a modern target OS — with a signed parity report as output.

Run vrtmv assess centos7.vmdk and get back a complete picture of what is inside. Run vrtmv migrate centos7.vmdk --target rocky9 and get back an Ansible role that rebuilds it on Rocky 9, plus a report attesting that the result is equivalent to the source.

Vrtmv reverse-engineers a workload from wherever it lives: a cold disk image, a running Linux VM, or a legacy bare-metal server. The source does not need to be live, reachable, or bootable — but if it is running, Vrtmv can collect from it directly over SSH, so physical machines and VMs that can't be imaged are in scope too.

What Vrtmv is for

Hypervisor exit and distribution end-of-life (CentOS Linux, EOL June 2024) have turned Linux migration into a board-level programme in regulated enterprises. The tools that move virtual machines competently still deliver the same undocumented, drifted, pre-EOL pet VMs onto the new platform — no infrastructure-as-code, no evidence, no modernisation.

Vrtmv is the codification and attestation layer those tools do not provide:

  • Any source. Cold disk images (no SSH, nothing booted), running Linux VMs, and legacy bare-metal servers — the last two collected over SSH. A physical box that predates your virtualization estate is reverse-engineered the same way a VMDK is.
  • Offline analysis. For cold images, inventory extraction runs entirely on the customer host with nothing booted.
  • Cross-distro translation. CentOS 7 in, Rocky 9 out. Package names, config paths, init-system differences, service accounts, and MAC (SELinux/AppArmor) posture — translated from a curated, hosted translation API.
  • Parity attestation. Every output is auditable. Each translation carries provenance and a graded confidence; the report is a signed, timestamped artefact suitable as audit evidence.
  • Your workload data stays local. Image contents, configuration, and extracted inventory never leave the customer environment. The only thing sent off-host is package identifiers, looked up against the Vrtmv translation API.

How to read these docs

  • Concepts explains the client–server architecture, the Translation Index, and what "attestation" means here.
  • Guide walks from install and authentication through your first migration.
  • Commands is the reference for every vrtmv subcommand.
  • The Vrtmv API documents the authenticated service the client talks to, including accounts, quota, and billing.

Vrtmv is a commercial product. The curated Translation Index is served, never shipped — it is the asset, kept current centrally and licensed per account. See Accounts, quota & billing.