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4 Replies Last post: Sep 22, 2008 7:22 AM by tom howarth  

Moving VM's posted: Sep 9, 2008 6:26 AM

Click to view aric.wilisch's profile Novice
aric.wilisch
6 posts since
Sep 8, 2008

I've been using Vmware Server for years, but I've only recently started using ESX for our production network. I currently have 2 of the free Vmware Servers and 2 ESX 3i servers.

One of the big benifits I liked about Vmware Server was if my host server was having issues I could shut the vm down, copy the directory to another server, then with a few minor changes I could be back up and running inside of 10 minutes. But it's looking like to get the same functionality with ESX I'd have to buy a copy of Virtual Infrastructure, which I'm not going to get approval for right now. Is there any way of moving a VM from one ESX server to another WITHOUT having to buy VI3? Eventually I will end up getting a copy, but for now I have to rely on moving things myself.

Thanks in advance for any help!

--Aric

Re: Moving VM's

1. Sep 9, 2008 8:03 AM in response to: aric.wilisch
Click to view tgoedde's profile Novice
tgoedde
6 posts since
Jul 20, 2006
You could use putty to connect to the server you want to copy files from
and use sftp to the other ESX server or the long way would be to use
WINSCP to the ESX server and copy the files to your local system then
open WINSCP to another ESX server you want to copy to and then copy the
local files to the new server.

Thanks,
Tim Goedde
Systems Administrator
513-412-4414

Re: Moving VM's

2. Sep 10, 2008 9:15 AM in response to: aric.wilisch
Click to view mheerkens's profile Novice
mheerkens
3 posts since
Apr 30, 2008

You can use VMWare converter to get the machine from one environment to the other.


Re: Moving VM's

3. Sep 10, 2008 10:03 AM in response to: mheerkens
Click to view aric.wilisch's profile Novice
aric.wilisch
6 posts since
Sep 8, 2008
In most cases I can. However I just had to rebuild a linux vm guest that I had running because everytime I moved it, the LVM groups would not come over. Course that was between VM Server 1.05 and ESX so I'm hoping it works a bit smoother between ESX servers. Just wish they had built a samba server, or even an FTP server, into ESX so I could just browse to it.

Re: Moving VM's

4. Sep 22, 2008 7:22 AM in response to: aric.wilisch
Click to view tom howarth's profile Guru
tom howarth
7,346 posts since
Jul 25, 2005

I take it form your intimation that you are using local storage for your guests.

You have a number of options that do not involve buying a copy of VirtualCenter.

the easiest and quickest option is to download and configure the XVS applicance on both of your ESXi hosts.. this is a virtual applicance that presents local storage to ESX hosts as if it is a shared iSCSI node. it also has the advantage of being replicated to another node in a linked pair. this means that your guests are on two sets for disks and when your need to bring a host down for maintenancejsut reregister your vm with your alternate host.

another is to copy the contents of the VMFS directory to another host, use Veeam FastSCP to do the transfer it is quicker, and then just register it again

Tom Howarth
VMware Communities User Moderator

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