Kubectl Mtv

MTV/Forklift - Migration Toolkit for Virtualization

Manage VM migrations from VMware vSphere, oVirt (RHV), OpenStack, OVA, EC2, and HyperV to OpenShift Virtualization (KubeVirt) using the oc mtv CLI.

Required CLI Tools

This skill requires:

• oc mtv (kubectl-mtv) -- for MTV/Forklift management
• oc debug-queries (kubectl-debug-queries) -- for resource/log/event queries

If any tool is missing, install with the secure version-pinned installer:

curl -sSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubev2v/mtv-skills/main/tools/install-tools.sh
curl -sSL  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubev2v/mtv-skills/main/SHA256SUMS | shasum -a 256 --check --ignore-missing
bash install-tools.sh kubectl-mtv kubectl-debug-queries && rm install-tools.sh

Getting Help

Always call --help before using an unfamiliar command to learn its flags and see examples:

oc mtv create provider --help
oc mtv create plan --help
oc mtv get inventory vm --help
oc mtv help tsl
oc mtv help karl

Typical Migration Workflow

1. Check system health

oc mtv health
oc mtv health --all-namespaces
oc mtv health --skip-logs

The health output shows the Forklift operator namespace. See Forklift Pod Labels for pod label details.

2. Configure settings (e.g., VDDK image for vSphere)

oc mtv settings set --setting vddk_image --value <registry-url>/vddk
oc mtv settings get --setting vddk_image
oc mtv settings unset --setting vddk_image
oc mtv settings --all

To build a VDDK image from the VMware SDK tar:

oc mtv create vddk-image --tar VMware-vix-disklib-8.0.1.tar.gz --tag quay.io/myorg/vddk:8.0.1 --push
oc mtv create vddk-image --tar VMware-vix-disklib-8.0.1.tar.gz --tag quay.io/myorg/vddk:8.0.1 --push --set-controller-image

3. Create providers

For vSphere providers, the VDDK init image is required. Check if it is already configured globally:

oc mtv settings get --setting vddk_image

If a global VDDK image is set, you do NOT need --vddk-init-image on the provider. If it is not set, prefer setting it globally (if you have permissions). Only use --vddk-init-image on the provider as a fallback.

oc mtv create provider --name host --type openshift -n <namespace>

oc mtv create provider --name my-vsphere --type vsphere \
  --url "https://vcenter.example.com/sdk" \
  --username "admin@vsphere.local" --password "$PASSWORD" \
  -n <namespace>

oc mtv create provider --name my-ovirt --type ovirt \
  --url "https://rhv-manager.example.com/ovirt-engine/api" \
  --username "admin@internal" --password "$PASSWORD" \
  -n <namespace>

oc mtv create provider --name my-ec2 --type ec2 \
  --ec2-region us-east-1 \
  --username "$EC2_KEY" --password "$EC2_SECRET" \
  --auto-target-credentials \
  -n <namespace>

oc mtv create provider --name my-hyperv --type hyperv \
  --url "https://192.168.1.100" \
  --username Administrator --password "$PASSWORD" \
  --smb-url "//192.168.1.100/VMShare" \
  -n <namespace>

4. List providers and verify

oc mtv get provider -n <namespace>
oc mtv get provider --all-namespaces

5. Browse inventory VMs

oc mtv get inventory vm --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>

oc mtv get inventory vm --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace> \
  --query "where name ~= 'prod-.*'"

oc mtv get inventory vm --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace> \
  --query "where powerState = 'poweredOn' and memoryMB > 4096"

oc mtv get inventory vm --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace> \
  --query "where cpuCount > 4 and len(disks) > 1"

oc mtv get inventory vm --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace> \
  --query "where name ~= 'web-.*'" --output planvms

6. Browse other inventory resources

oc mtv get inventory network --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>
oc mtv get inventory storage --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>
oc mtv get inventory host --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>
oc mtv get inventory cluster --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>
oc mtv get inventory datacenter --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>
oc mtv get inventory datastore --provider my-vsphere -n <namespace>

7. Create a migration plan

Prerequisites

A plan requires an OpenShift host (target) provider in the same namespace. Verify one exists:

oc mtv get provider -n <namespace>

If no OpenShift provider is listed, create one:

oc mtv create provider --name host --type openshift -n <namespace>

Creating plans

Only --name, --source, and --vms are required. The target provider, network/storage mappings, and other settings are auto-detected. Only add optional flags when you need to override defaults.

oc mtv create plan --name my-migration --source my-vsphere \
  --vms "vm1,vm2,vm3" -n <namespace>

oc mtv create plan --name my-migration --source my-vsphere \
  --vms "where name ~= 'prod-.*'" -n <namespace>

oc mtv create plan --name my-warm --source my-vsphere \
  --vms critical-vm --migration-type warm -n <namespace>

Override defaults only when auto-detection doesn't suit your needs:

oc mtv create plan --name my-migration --source my-vsphere --target host \
  --vms "vm1,vm2" \
  --default-target-network default \
  --default-target-storage-class standard \
  -n <namespace>

Verify plan health

Plans referencing invalid storage classes or networks are accepted at creation time but fail at the controller level. Always verify the plan is ready after creating it:

oc mtv get plan -n <namespace>

If READY shows false, check conditions:

oc debug-queries get --resource plans --name <plan-name> --namespace <namespace> --output json --query "select name, status.conditions"

8. Start migration

oc mtv start plan --name my-migration -n <namespace>
oc mtv start plan --name "plan1,plan2" -n <namespace>

9. Monitor migration

oc mtv get plan -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --name my-migration -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --name my-migration --vms -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --name my-migration --disk -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --name my-migration --vms --disk -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --vms-table -n <namespace>
oc mtv get plan --vms-table --query "where planStatus = 'Failed'" -n <namespace>

Migration resource labels

During a migration, Kubernetes resources across the pipeline carry labels that allow cross-referencing. The guest conversion (virt-v2v) pod has the richest labeling.

Label reference by resource type:

Key differences:

• PVC does NOT have plan (UUID) or migration (UUID) — only plan-name and plan-namespace
• vddk job does NOT have plan-name, migration, or vmID — only plan (UUID) and vddk (UUID)
• virt-v2v pod has ALL labels — best anchor for cross-referencing

Querying by label:

# By migration UUID
MIGRATION_ID="da65210f-..."
oc get pods -l "migration=${MIGRATION_ID}" -n test
oc get dv -l "migration=${MIGRATION_ID}" -n test

# By plan name
oc get pods -l "plan-name=test-migration" -n test
oc get dv -l "plan-name=test-migration" -n test
oc get pvc -l "plan-name=test-migration" -n test

# By VM ID (vSphere VM inventory ID)
oc get pods -l "vmID=vm-1141" -n test

10. View logs

The health command includes built-in log analysis. Use --skip-logs to disable and --log-lines to control how many lines per pod are analyzed:

oc mtv health -n <namespace>
oc mtv health --all-namespaces --log-lines 200

For targeted log inspection of specific Forklift pods, use oc debug-queries. First discover the operator namespace via oc mtv health (the output includes "Namespace: "):

oc debug-queries logs --name deployment/forklift-controller --namespace <forklift-namespace> --container main --tail 100
oc debug-queries logs --name deployment/forklift-controller --namespace <forklift-namespace> --container main --tail 100 --query "where level = 'ERROR'"

Before writing log queries, discover the actual field names and values:

oc debug-queries logs --name deployment/forklift-controller --namespace <forklift-namespace> --container main --tail 5 --output json

Full-text search when you don't know which field contains the value:

oc debug-queries logs --name deployment/forklift-controller --namespace <forklift-namespace> --container main --tail 200 --query "where raw_line ~= '.*<search-term>.*'"

Note: When using deployment/forklift-controller in log queries, Kubernetes resolves the pods via the deployment's selector automatically. If referencing pods directly (e.g., --selector or by pod name), use the labels documented in Forklift Pod Labels. For migration-specific resources (DVs, PVCs, virt-v2v pods), use the labels documented in Migration resource labels.

11. Plan lifecycle

oc mtv cancel plan --name my-migration --vms "vm1,vm2" -n <namespace>
oc mtv cutover plan --name my-warm -n <namespace>
oc mtv archive plan --name my-migration -n <namespace>
oc mtv unarchive plan --name my-migration -n <namespace>

12. Modify existing resources

oc mtv patch plan --plan-name my-migration --migration-type warm -n <namespace>
oc mtv patch plan --plan-name my-migration --target-labels "env=prod,team=platform" -n <namespace>
oc mtv patch planvm --plan-name my-migration --vm vm1 --target-name new-vm-name -n <namespace>
oc mtv patch provider --name my-vsphere --url "https://new-vcenter.example.com/sdk" -n <namespace>

13. Cleanup

oc mtv delete plan --name my-migration -n <namespace>
oc mtv delete provider --name my-vsphere -n <namespace>

TSL Query Syntax (for --vms and --query flags)

Use --query to filter, sort, and project results server-side. Use pipe output to jq, grep, or other post-processing tools only when --query cannot express what you need. The --query flag handles filtering, field selection, sorting, and limiting natively.

TSL (Tree Search Language) supports four optional clauses, in this order:

[select <field>, ...] [where <condition>] [order by <field> [asc|desc]] [limit N]

All clauses are optional and can be combined freely. You can use select alone, where alone, order by alone, limit alone, or any combination.

select -- choose which fields to return

Use select to project only the fields you need (like SQL SELECT). Note: select only affects table output (the default). With --output json, all fields are always returned regardless of select.

select name, cpuCount, memoryMB
select name, powerState, len(disks) as diskCount
select name, disks[*].capacity as diskSizes
select name, status.conditions

where -- filter rows

where name ~= 'prod-.*'
where powerState = 'poweredOn' and memoryMB > 4096
where cpuCount > 4 and len(disks) > 1
where any(concerns[*].category = 'Critical')
where name in ['vm1', 'vm2', 'vm3']
where memoryMB between 2048 and 8192
where not (powerState = 'poweredOff')

order by -- sort results

order by name asc
order by memoryMB desc
order by cpuCount desc

limit -- cap the number of results

limit 10
limit 5

Combining clauses

select name, cpuCount, memoryMB where powerState = 'poweredOn' order by memoryMB desc limit 10
where name like '%web%' order by memoryMB desc limit 10
select name, powerState where cpuCount > 4 order by name asc
where memoryMB > 4096 limit 5
select name where any(concerns[*].category = 'Critical') order by name asc limit 20

Operators

• Comparison: =, !=, <, <=, >, >=
• String: like (% wildcard), ilike (case-insensitive), ~= (regex), ~! (regex negation)
• Logical: and, or, not
• Set: in [...], not in [...], between X and Y
• Array: len(field), any(field[*].sub = 'val'), all(field[*].sub >= N)
• SI units: 4Gi, 512Mi, 1Ti

Common fields (vSphere)

• name, id, powerState, cpuCount, memoryMB, guestId, firmware
• len(disks), len(nics), disks[*].capacity, disks[*].shared
• concerns[*].category (Critical, Warning, Information)
• path (folder path), host, storageUsed

KARL Affinity Syntax

The create plan and patch plan commands support --target-affinity and --convertor-affinity flags using KARL syntax for pod placement rules:

RULE_TYPE pods(selector) on TOPOLOGY [weight=N]

Rule types: REQUIRE (hard affinity), PREFER (soft affinity), AVOID (hard anti-affinity), REPEL (soft anti-affinity). Topology: node, zone, region, rack.

oc mtv create plan --name my-plan --source my-vsphere --vms db-vm \
  --target-affinity "REQUIRE pods(app=database) on node" \
  -n <namespace>

For the full KARL reference, call oc mtv help karl.

Forklift Pod Labels

All Forklift pods share the label app=forklift. Additional distinguishing labels:

When referencing pods directly (not via deployment/...), use app=forklift. The label is app=forklift, not app=forklift-controller.

Self-Learning Rule

When you encounter an unfamiliar MTV command or need to verify flags, always call:

oc mtv <command> --help
oc mtv <command> <subcommand> --help

This ensures you use the correct and current syntax.