How to use Migration Assistant with High Sierra Guest VM?

Discussion in 'macOS Virtual Machine' started by budsimrin, Jun 24, 2018.

  1. budsimrin

    budsimrin Member

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    I successfully installed a clean High Sierra VM. Now I wish to run Migration Assistant. I first run it in the High Sierra Guest OS from /Applications/Utilities. It then tells me to run it also on the Mac, but when I do the Mac closes all apps (including Parallels Desktop), logs out, and waits for a connection. It seems I need both migration assistants running in tandem? How do I do that?
     
  2. ParallelsU130

    ParallelsU130 Member

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    I am running Snow Leopard VM in Mavericks host, so it may not replicate your situation.

    However, MA on the VM gave me the choice of "From another Mac" or "Time Machine or other startup disk". "From another Mac" is maybe what you chose? This gave a list of things to do on the other Mac, including bringing the OS up to date, open MA, and enter a passcode supplied. However it got stuck on "Looking for another computer", which it won't find as both VM and host are necessarily on the same computer.

    I then chose the "Time Machine or other" option but it couldn't find the startup drive on my host Mac.

    I would say from my experience that MA isn't designed to work with a VM. In which case, your best option would be to connect your VM to the host and copy across any data you need.
     
  3. budsimrin

    budsimrin Member

    Messages:
    25
    Thanks. I chose "From another Mac" and it asked me to run MA also on the "other" Mac which of course in my real Mac which was running the VM. From there MA closes Parallels Desktop.

    So, thanks for the confirmation. Looks like MA is not an option.

    I wasn't so much worried about files because all my Mac files are accessible to the VM. But I have a large number of initialization files that simplify use of the Mac and I was hoping to migrate them rather than install them one-by-one in the VM.
     
  4. ParallelsU130

    ParallelsU130 Member

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    Are those application initialisation files? If so, you could copy the entire app along with all its ancillary files (Application Support, Preferences, etc) into your VM, which is what I have done with all my most frequently used apps. Indeed, in one of them, I have the VM app write its saved data to the relevant folder in Application Support on the host Mac, and from there it is sync'd to Dropbox. Some may say this is a bit dangerous, but touch wood, so far so good...
     
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  5. budsimrin

    budsimrin Member

    Messages:
    25
    Yes, they are application files like LaunchBar, Default Folder, etc. I was thinking of temporarily copying the installer files to the VM and installing them that way. If it seems more convenient I may move some of them over using your method. And... I will watch them for any instances of needing them to write to the relevant folder on the host Mac. I handn't thought through the process that far yet like you have, but I can imagine I might want to do that for things like saved notes. Hopefully not but I'll keep an eye out.

    Good comment. Gives me food for thought. Thanks.
     
  6. ParallelsU130

    ParallelsU130 Member

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    82
    I did it that way because of a much-lamented app called Journler which was last officially supported for Leopard. I found it still runs in Mavericks but has given up the ghost when it comes to adding pictures to entries. It will however, in Snow Leopard - so I run Journler there, but in order to back it up to Dropbox I found the easiest way was for it to write its data direct to the host Application Support folder, which Parallels enables.
     

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