vm migration

[PermitAnyAny]

I have inherited  three Dell PowerEdge R710s, with each ESX server hosting 3 VMs per.  I would like to replace each server with two new servers (datacenter) so I can take advantage of the HA feature available.  My question is, how feasibe is it for me to back up all of my VM files to external storage, then migrate them into the new datacenter setup.  The versions will not change (VMware ESXi, 4.1.0)...wondering if anyone out there has succeded with this process before.  FYI...the previous admin is storing all VMs local on host severs without a SAN (which I will be implementing).  Any help would be greatly appreciated...Mr D

[ldelloca]

Hi,

what you want to do is doable without any problem.

I will have some downtime based on the license type you have, if you have not an option for storage vmotion, you will have to stop VMs in order to copy them to the SAN.

About the backup, once you run alla your VMs from the san, think about a secondary network storage to save the VMs.

Did you already have some backup solution in place?

Luca.

--
Luca Dell'Oca
http://www.vuemuer.it
[Giving points to a useful answer is a way to say thanks]

[ShanVMLand · Accepted solution]

Since you are planning to implement SAN (external storgage),

Step 1: Mount the ext. storage into old ESX host as a datastore

Step 2: Perform sVMotion (license permits) or Power off the VMs and perform offline migration

Step 3: Introduce the same ext. storage (datastore) to new ESX hosts

Step 4: Register the VMs and power on them.

You may have problem with backup to external storage method. since the VMX file point to old datastore entries and your VM failed to start. The best option is do a online or offline storage migration.

Thanks,

Shan

[PermitAnyAny]

Worked like a charm...thanks for the response.,