2 Questions regarding V2V with Standalone Converter 4.3

[Gav0]

I have an esx 4.0 environment with a few production Windows VM's on.  The esx 4.0 host's are moving to a new location with expected down time of a few days.  To minimise impact I planned to stand up a temp VM Host and V2V the VM's to it, then when the original kit is in its new home V2V them back again.

I've just built a temp esxi 4.1 host and done a test V2V which went ok (ish). The main problem I encountered was the static IP address hadn't carried over.  So my 1st quesion is: is there a way for a migrated VM to keep its static ip configuration?

Secondly, will I encounter any issues V2V'ing these VM's back to an older version of VMWare ie from esxi 4.1 => esx 4.0?

perhaps not upgarding the vmware tools would get round this or would it be better to stand up another esx 4.0 temp server?

many thanks

[Troy_Clavell]

to answer you 2nd question first.  Yes, the V2V between a 4.1 and 4.0 host of this guest will be just fine.  The VM will have no negative impact.

With that said, and to answer question 1.  For us, we never bring the NIC over during a V2V, or P2V.  What happens is there will always be a "hidden device" in device manager.  Once that device is removed, then we add the NIC.  I haven't done a V2V where I left the vNIC attached in awhile, but the times I have, it never retains the original IP.

So, my suggestion, and to me best practice.  Don't carrry the vNIC with you, add it when the conversion is complete.  Also, don't forget to remove hidden devices in device manager as well.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=269155

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

[Gav0]

Thanks Troy.

One of the issues I faced with the test was i received the error "The IP address you entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter 'VMWare PCI Ethernet Adapter' when attempting to enter the static IP info - I managed to find the fix you described in a KB article and removed the 'ghost' nic.  after that i was able to enter the IP settings.

This has now prompted another question: One of our VM's is Linux, do you know if there a similar problem or work around needed regarding 'ghost' nics for this OS?

thanks in advance

[Troy_Clavell]

the above M$ KB will fix the issue you are seeing.  As for Linux, we don't have linux guests so I can't reall help with that.

[a_p_]

Just a quick hint regarding the "The IP address you entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter... " message box.

Even though deleting the ghost NIC might be the cleanest way, read the message all the way down to the end and then answer the question with "No". The question at the end is tricky, it does not ask whether you wish to apply the IP settings anyway, it asks whether you want to modify the entered settings! Answering with "No" will apply the settings to the newly created NIC without issues.

André

[continuum]

stupid question

why do you wanty to do this with Converter ?

If you do it the normal way you will have no issues with network at all

[bulletprooffool]

Gavo - no need to V2V these.

you have 2 easy and quick options.

1) If you have a VC and shared storage, you can just vMotion / sVmotion the guests.

2) If you actually want to run copies of the VMs, you can just copy the files using something like FastSCP, then import the vmdks.

[Gav0]

Basically the ESX hosts are moving ahead of the shared storage (other services use the san so it cant move yet) so vmotion/svmotion isnt an option.    Due to the several days transit/downtime etc want to keep the VM's local on a stand alone esxi host until the san moves when they can be sent over the wire.

So from the previous comments would it be better to power down the VM's and copy the files to the new server instead of using converter?  if so are there any gotchas moving from esx 4.0 to esxi 4.1 using thsi method?

thanks in advance!

[bulletprooffool · Accepted solution]

This will work without any problems - there are no gotchas.

If you are worried about it, clone a VM and copy the files for the cloned VM, then start it up on the new ESX as a test.

You don't have much to stress about

[Gav0]

cool that sounds like a good idea.  i'll get a test linux box up soon and run through this.

i saw you mentioned FastSCP earlier, just looked at the website and it looks pretty useful,

Thanks!

[Gav0]

Okay Ive downloaded FastSCP and tested with a windows server.  The copy of the VM directory to the new datastore went smoothly but how do i get it to appear in the inventory of the new ESXi server?

[continuum]

in Datastorebrowser right-click the vmx-file and say "add to inventory"

[Gav0]

I have migrated 2 VM's using FastSCP.  It didnt seem that fast though.  It took 10+ hours to migrate a VM with 2 HDD's totalling 172GB.  The transfer rate was 4mbs although it was using local GB nics and switch ports.  Does this seem right or should I be looking at the network connectivity?

Thanks in advance!

[continuum]

that should be faster - check your network