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jeff92k7
Contributor
Contributor

Two questions: rename cluster and move View pools

I have two questions related to VMware view 4.5 (and vcenter 4.1/esxi 4.1).


First: can I rename an exisiting vcenter server cluster without affecting (breaking) the vmware view desktop pools that are running on that cluster?  The cluster in question is an esxi4.1 cluster managed by vcenter with HA and DRS.  I don't want to do anything in this case but rename the cluster.

Second: Is there a way to move an entire vmware view desktop pool from one cluster to another without breaking the pool?  I want to move the desktop pools from one esxi4.1 cluster to another cluster (the one in the first question).

Basically, I have two esxi4.1 server clusters with vmware view desktop pools in both.  I am rearranging to make one cluster a VDI (vmware view) cluster and the other will be where I move all my servers into rather than having both clusters running servers and VDI desktops together.

Thanks,

Jeff

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4 Replies
mittim12
Immortal
Immortal

Jeff,  if you are using linked clones you could simply recompose the pool and point it to the new cluster and they should move over no problem.  If you are using persistent desktops you should be able to storage vmotion over to the new cluster without any issues.   I think the biggest challenge is when you switch vCenter boxes and you are not doing that.

I can't comment on the cluster name.  It might be fine as long as you go through the pool setups and select the new cluster name as the location to provision and power on new desktops. 

kgsivan
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

1. yes you can rename the cluster, without any imapct to the view configuration

2. To change the cluster, do following

     - Ensure datastore visibily across clusters

     - Edit the pool, change the cluster

     - Rebalance the pool

All pools will be moved to the new cluster

jeff92k7
Contributor
Contributor

Okay...I'd like to say 'thank you' to the two posters who responded.  You guys both helped out.  It turned out to be relatively painless, but there were a couple of things I ran into

First of all, after renaming the cluster, all the VDI desktops continued running fine, except for one pool of linked clones.  Since the cluster name had changed, VMview manager "lost" all settings related to the cluster, resource pool, and storage location for that pool of VDI desktops.  I had to put the information back in to point to the same locations on the new cluster.

Secondly, regarding migrating VDI pools from one cluster to another, it was dead simple for non-linked clones, just used vmotion to move them and I was done.  The linked clones were a bit different.  I had to put in the cluster, resource pool, and storage location in the pool settings for VMview to know where to create new machines, but it left the existing machines where they were.  I tried the "rebalance" thing, but it said it was going to revert them back to the base image, and I didn't want to do that.  What I ended up doing, was shutting them down, migrating them to the new cluster, and powering them back on.  They showed right back up in the view manager console.

If I run into any probelms tomorrow when the users come back in and start reconnecting, I'll post back.  However, I tested connecting on my own and didn't have any problems.  I don't expect any users to notice that anything is different.

Thanks again for the help.

Jeff

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rajesh447
Contributor
Contributor

HI,

Is it possible to move VMware View 5.0 from one vCenter to another vCenter ( different location , different name and IP ) , all the desktops are consistent. No view composer or linked clones, I can replicate the storage to new location and move the ESX hosts. Please advise.

Thanks,

Raj

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