Move-VM between datastores

[jsintz]

I am attempting to move a VM to a new host, but when I exectue the following command I get an error stating the the destination container must be in the same datacenter.

move-vm -VM mytestvm -Destination (get-vmhost vhost2.mydomain.com) -Datastore my_newdatastore

Structure

vDataCenter_1

vCluster_1

vHost_1

mytestvm

vDataCenter_2

vCluster_2

vHost2

The VM is powered off and I am able to move the VM via virtualCenter without any errors or issues. Why can't I do the same via the "move-vm" powercli cmdlet?

[LucD]

Afaik sVmotion only works between shared storage.

That's why the cmdlet tells you the destination has to be in the same datacenter.

If the guest is powered off you try the Copy-DatastoreItem to move the guest's folder from one datastore to the other datastore.

You have to unregister and register the guest before doing that.

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[jsintz]

Why does the cold migration work from within virtual center? I am able to migrate this vm back and forth between these two datacenters with and without changing the datastore via virtualcenter. I don't have to unregister/register or move folders, just power off the vm, click migrate, and off it goes.

[LucD]

Are you sure you're not using Andrew Kutz's SVmotion plugin ?

Just tried it again in my vCenter (build 208111) and I can only see datastores that are in the same datacenter.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[jsintz]

Absolutly 100% sure I am not using Mr. Kutz's SVmotion plugin (not installed). Also, I am not doing a storage vmotion (specifically). I am doing a cold migration between two differnet hosts in two different datacenters with two diffent storage pools using virtualcenter (build 208111) and it works as long as the VM is powered off. The same, powered off, VM will NOT move when I use the Move-VM cmdlet.

[LucD]

Ok, I think I see what you are doing.

You select Migrate and then the Host and Datastore option.

That won't work with Move-VM in the current build.

But you can use the RelocateVM method.

$vmName = <vmname>
$tgtDS = <target-datastorename>
$tgtHost = <target-esxname>

$vm = Get-VM $vmName | Get-View
$esx = Get-VMHost $tgtHost | Get-View
$parent = $esx.Parent
while($parent.Type -ne "Datacenter"){
	$parent = (Get-View $parent).Parent
}
$dc = Get-View $parent
$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec
$spec.datastore = (Get-Datastore $tgtDS | Get-View).MoRef
$spec.host = $esx.MoRef
$spec.Pool = (Get-Datacenter $dc.Name | Get-ResourcePool -Name "Resources" | Get-View).MoRef
$vm.RelocateVM($spec,"defaultPriority")

Sorry about the confusion.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[jsintz]

Awesome. Thank you!

Let me give it a try.

[jsintz]

Still having a problem with different datacenters. I get the following error now.

"The input arguments had entities that did not belong to the same datacenter."

[LucD]

Just to make sure, you did specify a host from the target datacenter ?

Tested it again and for me it works.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[jsintz]

When I run script as-is I get the following error

Exception calling "RelocateVM" with "2" argument(s): "The input arguments had entities that did not belong to the same datacenter."

At C:\Scripts\vps\vmRelocate_test.ps1:27 char:15

+ $vm.RelocateVM <<<< ($spec,"defaultPriority")

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( [], MethodInvocationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

I included a "write-host" statement after each variable so I could see what it was doing and this is the output

$vm = VMware.Vim.VirtualMachine

$esx = VMware.Vim.HostSystem

$parent = ClusterComputeResource-domain-c103295

while $parent = Folder-group-h80618

$dc = Datacenter-datacenter-80616

$spec = VMware.Vim.Datacenter

$spec.datastore = VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec

$spec.host = Datastore-datastore-113654

$spec.Pool = HostSystem-host-104044

Exception calling "RelocateVM" with "2" argument(s): "The input arguments had entities that did not belong to the same datacenter."

At C:\Scripts\vps\vmRelocate_test.ps1:27 char:15

+ $vm.RelocateVM <<<< ($spec,"defaultPriority")

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( [], MethodInvocationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

[LucD]

Could you insert before the last line ($vm.RelocateVM...) a new line with $spec in it ?

...
$spec                 # Add this line
$vm.RelocateVM...

This should dump the contents of the VirtualMachineRelocateSpec object.

From the output in your previous reply I have the impression something went wrong there.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22