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akutz
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion

SVMotion is a VI 2.5 client plugin (the FIRST released, third-party plugin in fact) that extends the client's functionality by providing an integrated, graphical tool that can be used to invoke storage VMotion (SVMotion) operations. This plugin is not supported by VMware. In fact, the plugin is not anywhere close to supported by VMware because it is the result of a two-week dive into the inner-workings of the VI client libraries with popular reflection tools (reverse-engineering). l o s t c r e a t i o n s is working on a white paper that describes how to build VI plugins.

Read more about SVMotion and download it here http://www.lostcreations.com/code/wiki/vmware/viplugins/svmotion.

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Kindred_UnixSup
Contributor
Contributor

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J_Cousins
Contributor
Contributor

Just ran into a brick wall here... The VM being migrated with Storage VMotion contains an 20GB VMDK file and a physical RDM pointing to a 400GB SAN Based LUN. While all the files on the DataStore are well within the limits of the block size limitations, the SAN based RDM isn't.

There is a limitation within SVMotion where the size of the Physical RDM is being passed through and seen by VMware on the VMFS volume as the full size instead of the re-direction stub.

The effect of this is that the SVMotion won't be able to complete. There is then no option for the Virtual Machine to be able to be edited or be removed from the inventory.

Talking to VMware support we had to recreate the Directory (move the old data to a temp dir) manually copy back the real VMDK file, deregister the VM using vmware-cmd then re-register it. Also had to create a completely new VM pointing to the existing drives (VMDK file and RDM).

Quite a messy marathon, but fixable... manually and with the VM offline.

Now here's the twist.... SVM worked perfectly of an earlier VM that had 4 RDM's of larger size... which totally contradicts what just happened and the confirmation of the issue with VMware Support

Only difference on the configs is that the VM that failed was configured for a BusLogic SCSI controller...

This is real Twilight Zone stuff..

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chicagovm
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I installed the MSI to my XP workstation as I use the VC 2.5 client.

The plugin failed as I get the following error when I try to check box ( enabled) .

" The remote server returned an error: (407) Proxy Authentication Required."

Do I need to install it to our VC server?

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mickregan
Contributor
Contributor

I just disabled all Proxy settings in IE7 and it started working.

Do you proxy internal traffic between clients and servers?

Cheers

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

hi there,

Thanks for the great tool! I'm having a few issues however.. I can't seem to svmotion vm's with multiple drives onto different SAN Lun's on the destination source?

for example:

vm1

c: 20gig OLDSANLUN1 to c: 20gig NEWSANLUN1

d: 5gig OLDSANLUN2 to c: 20gig NEWSANLUN2

i can only seem to put both c and d drives on either NEWSANLUN1 OR NEWSANLUN2, not split them across the 2.

Any ideas?

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

it produces the following error "The requested Storage VMotion would move a virtual machine's disk without assigning the virtual machine a new home, but such a move is not supported on the source host '10.1.106.14'

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akutz
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Not the plug-in, it's the SDK. You're trying to do something illegal.

Work on Wallstreet much? : )

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

I'm not quite sure i understand...

I can do this through the cli using a batch file but not thru your plug in.

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jeangaud
Contributor
Contributor

I think I had this error when trying to move the disk of a VM. You need to move the whole VM to another location and submit.

Jean

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

got ya! I needed to move the vm as well as the disks to the host lun's. I didn't think that thing moved in the gui...

Thanks :smileycool:

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

Has anyone tried svmotioning a 2tB LUN? Have you had any issues? Timeouts etc?

I need to svmotion an exchange server over 3 SAN LUN's with 40gig, 750gig and 2 tB. Just wondering how long i should expect it to take! Also how large the snapshot will grow whilst doing the migration

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mpverr
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

WOW!!!

I spit my drink when I read your question.

My goodness - we certainly have not tried one that large, but we do use

smotion a lot. I would be very concerned about the delta file. While

you cannot take our metrics to be exact as there are so many variables.

But the ones we typically do are 50gig VMDK on a 2gig HBA and it takes

about 40 min or so depending on what else is happening on the

host/array. Something that large I would recommend an offline migration

or something. OR..... use something like vmconvertor that does a live

migration of a running system. Smotionn for 2tb..... count me out

Hope this helps

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akutz
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I'm an enabler. You jump first and tell me if the ground is hard Smiley Happy

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bill_french
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have done this with a 1TB lun:

- Add a new 1TB drive on the new SAN/LUN

- In windows, make the new drive a mirror of the old drive

- Wait for the mirroring to finish and then destroy the old drive

You'll have to reboot at least once to remove the old drive(s) from the virtual machine, but at least the data got moved safely and without concern for snapshot growth. I forget how long it took, but it didn't really matter.

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mats82
Contributor
Contributor

how do you mirror the 2 seperate LUN's through server 2003? Is it done through disk management or a third party software?

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bill_french
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

No third party software needed for mirroring. The disks do need to be "dynamic" which might also require a reboot, I don't remember. We have fairly typically set up disks as dynamic from the get-go to allow for these sorts of situations.

Here's some more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323432

I've used this technique dozens of times, but svmotion (and akutz's plug-in) have made it basically obsolete, except in cases where you are concerned about snapshot growth.

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johnswb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello all,

After upgrading VC to 2.5 build 119598 I get "Failed to connect to host." when I try to SVmotion using the plug-in. Has anyone seen this before? Does SVmotion use the console / vmotion network connections and if so, what port does it use? Or, does it migrate directly to the storage? Also, I'm running SVmotion 1.0 and my hosts are 3.5 U3. Not that U3 has anything to do with it because I have some running U2 that is not working as well.

Will Johnson VCP on VI3 / VI4 vSphere 5
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Huston_CZ
Contributor
Contributor

Hi marvel akutz, Smiley Happy

i have one problem, and so far i didnt found it anywhere else described. everytime i try to move virtual disk, or VM, i got error "operation is not supported on the object" and then, VI client crash totally. I am trying to move disk from stand-alone ESX 3.5 local storage RAID5 SAS to NFS NAS storage (on the same switch).

I tried to find some restrictions, and didnt found, if for storage vmotion is needed to have installed Virtual Center, or some another licenses.

I described my situation also at http://communities.vmware.com/message/1099879#1099879, if you are interested. Basicly, i need to move VM out, because i need reformat the VMFS partition, since i added som new hard disks to the RAID5.

i am still learning stuff about advanced maintaing ESX, so be nice ?:|

Or if it is really restricted because of some reason, would it be possible send me some edited "non-production" version to move these VM to NFS? Risk is on my own.;-)

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jmorrismjmc
Contributor
Contributor

Johnswb, I did something very similar recently. I still can't get it to work from any client workstation but I did install the plugin on my VI server directly and I can now vmotion from there. The plugins just don't work from a remote client.

Every time I try to enable the plug I get: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.

In the meantime I have a workaround.

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djpark
Contributor
Contributor

Just wanted to throw out our thanks for this marvellous tool. We've done nearly 30 SVMotion migrations for files that range from 10 GB to 300 GB without a hitch.

We have been doing these transactions serially, waiting for one to complete before starting the next. Would there be any concern about VMDK fragmentation if we were to start moving files concurrently to the same LUN?

-David J. Park Principal Systems Archiect Twitter @djitnet
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