About vMotion on vSphere6.7

[Islanders]

I want to know does vMotion on vSphere6.7 still require a common share storage?

I setup my lab as following. I have one Master ESXi6.7 and then I install two nested ESXi6.7 in the master call ESXi-1a and ESXi-2a.

There is a small VM running in ESXi-2a. I config vmkernel for vMotion for them.

ESXi-1a has vmkernel port# 172.16.200.220 and ESXi-2a has vmkernal port#172.16.200.221..

When the vm power off then I able to vMotion from ESXi-2a to ESXi1a , but when the vm power on then I won't able to vMotion them?

Any idea?

Thank you

Michael

[daphnissov]

vMotion can be between two hosts with or without shared storage, but their vmkernel ports must have communication. A VM which is powered off is not called a vMotion.

[a_p_]

vMotion is the process to live migrate a VM from one host to another, i.e. doing this with the VM being powered on.

What vMotion does is to migrate the workload, which means the memory etc, but not the virtual disks. So yes, if you want to use vMotion, both hosts - source and target - need access to the storage.

There are however other features (depending on the edition) available, which allow to migrate both compute and storage from one host to another even without shared storage. This will of course take significant time, depending on the VM's virtual disk size.

André

[scott28tt]

This section of the documentation should help you: Migrating Virtual Machines

[Islanders]

This is on vSphere6.7. Some book said they don't require a share storage for vMotion.

In my case, when vm power on. the vMotion start about 30% then it failed. They don't have common share storage.

The err message as below " The vMotion failed because the destination host did not receive data from the source host on the vMoion network.

Please check your vMotion network settings and physcial network."

[daphnissov]

Yes, that book is correct. vMotion can be with or without shared storage. If you're getting that message it's not because you have non-shared storage but because your vmkernel ports tagged for vMotion cannot communicate. You have a networking issue.

[IRIX201110141]

If you configure a VMK for vmotion be sure that you tick the checkbox "vMotion" in that given VMK.  Remove the feature from all others VMKs. Do the same on the other ESXi as well. Use "vmkping" to verify the network connection and if all is configured to use Jumbo test it with "vmkping -d -s 8972 <IP>"

"..but when the vm power on then I won't able to vMotion them?.."

Whats your vSphere license?

Regards,
Joerg

[Islanders]

Hi,

I use 60days evaluation license for learning purpose. The license still good.

This is my simple diagram and they all connect with standard vswitch0.

Thanks for your inputs.

[IRIX201110141]

1. Show us a screenshot of the VMs of 2 effected ESXi Hosts

2. Does vmkping work yes or no?

Regards,
Joerg

[Islanders]

Hi Joerg,

ESXi-2a (Management IP = 172.16.100.221 and vMotion IP is 172.16.200.221)

ESXi-3a (Management IP = 172.16.100.222 and vMotion IP is 172.16.200.222)

The management IP are able to communicate each other but not the vMotion IP.

See the attachment but they are connected.

Thanks

[IRIX201110141]

Ok...

if vmkping show 100% packet loss its no surprise that vMotion is not working.

1. Please remove VMK1
2. Enable "vMotion" feature on VMK0
3. Do it on all 3 Hosts

Does enhanced svMotion now works for a running VM (choose one with tiny vDisks just for a Test) yes or no.  If yes we'll find what goes wrong with your VMK1.

Regards,

Joerg

[Islanders]

Hi

I saw the document very similar to my case, so I try to overriding the default gateway of a VMkernel adapter ... but failed.

Overriding the Default Gateway of a VMkernel Adapter

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-44CAFD7C-6352-4...

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-8BCBB25E-9A84-4...

Any idea?

Thanks

[a_p_]

Assuming that the vMotion uplink ports are connected to either ports on a physical switch, where the ports are in the same VLAN, you don't need a gateway for vMotion.

Please ensure that the vMotion port groups are either on a separate vSwitch, or at least configure the port groups' Teaming&Failover so that it has only the desired vmnic set as active. Also ensure that - as already mentioned in an earlier reply - that "vMotion" is only enabled on that port group.

André

[Islanders]

No good.

I enable vMotion on all those ESXi hosts and removed the other one.

I able to ping 172.16.100.x/24 network. and enable vMotion vkernel on this network card as well.

When I tried I got the following errors message....

Failed waiting for data. Error 195887167. Connection closed by remote host, possibly due to time out. Migration.

[Islanders]

I am new to VM ... it was by accident I delete the management vmkeral port on some ESXi host. I can't get back to it. I am going to rebuild them again ...

I wonder can any one provide me a very simple vMotion lab to try ?

Thanks you very much for everyone's help!.

[sjesse]

Check out the Hand on Labs from vmware, this is a basic one where this may be, but there are a ton .VMware Virtualization 101 Hands-on Lab . These tend to walk you through a procedure and give you an environment to test it in.

[a_p_]

I wonder can any one provide me a very simple vMotion lab to try ?

You were already close.

For vMotion, create a new vSwitch with an uplink, and just the vMotion port group.

André

[Islanders]

Thanks

[Islanders]

For vMotion, create a new vSwitch with an uplink, and just the vMotion port group.

Yes. That's should be it. ...will look into the root cause why it doesn't work it seen so simple.

Thanks for everyone's time and help.

[IRIX201110141]

KISS = Keep it simple stupid!

When you dont get it working and have no clue what your doing dont over complicate it!  Enable  vMotion is ONE SIMPLE CLICK on your existing VMK0/Management Portgroup.  How difficult can this be?

If you get it working than you can do it like best practice or how it looks like in production environent

- Extra vSwitch with 2 Uplinks because of redundancy

- Name the Portsgroup "vMotion"

- Use VLAN

- Use Jumboframes

- Think about Multi NIC vMotion

- .....

As long as you dont have xxxx Hosts which are spread in DCs around the world your vMotion Network is a private L2 Subnet and there is no routing needed.

Regards,
Joerg