Migration of VMs on ESX 2.5 to ESX 3.5

[ANSA]

I would like to use VMware Converter to move VMs on a 2.5 ESX host ot a 3.5 ESX host.

Would the VM hardware and VM Tools be upgraded as well.

Thanks for any help

[IamTHEvilONE]

>I would like to use VMware Converter to move VMs on a 2.5 ESX host ot a 3.5 ESX host.

If you want to use converter, there are a few requirements if the VM is powered off (most definitely nicer)

1. You must be using ESX 2.5.3 or higher (connecting directly to the ESX host doesn't work)

2. It must be managed by Virtual Center 2.x.x

Otherwise, you must treat the virtual machines' as a physical in step 1.

There is an alternate though. If you are using a local data store, you could:

1. Power Off the vm

2. SCP the vmdk files from one ESX host to another

3. Make a new virtual machine in ESX 3.5, and attach the existing VMDK files

4. power on new virtual machine

5. repeat for next vm.

A similar idea exists if you are using attached storage, you could:

1. Present the VMFS2 volume to the ESX 3.5 host (comes up as read only)

2. Copy the files

3. repeat steps from above.

>Would the VM hardware and VM Tools be upgraded as well.

hardware = no upgrade

tools = must upgrade, but I would do it after the virtual machine is migrated

Regards,

EvilOne

1 - Check the documents

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[continuum]

the good old fashioned "no-headache" road via ghost is always open ...

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[ANSA]

The versions of the ESX hosts are 2.5.2 and 2.5.0 with their vmdk files on a SAN

I'm in the process of building a virson 2.5.x virtual center server to manage these hosts.

I guess I will have to treat them as physical servers.

My next question is, have you done this pocess, and if so, what are the road blocks I should be looking out for.

Thanks for your reply

[ANSA]

continuum,

how do you use ghost to do this .... is this documented anywhere

Thanks for yor help

[continuum]

Is it documented ? - look at http://vmware-land.com/Vmware_Links.html - he surely has several links ...

The idea is

go to a machine - boot into your ghost-cd or floppy - mount a network share and create image

then go to a different machine - boot into your ghost-cd or floppy - mount a network share and restore image

in ESX creating the new machine is just a few clicks away - everything else is like with real metal - I am sure know your way there.

Don't puzzle yourself by thinking about VMs

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[IamTHEvilONE]

ANSA,

Ghost is always an option. To complete my post, and answer you questions from here

>My next question is, have you done this pocess, and if so, what are the road blocks I should be looking out for.

The process is well documented in the ESX upgrade guide:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_upgrade_guide.pdf

This is found on our documentation page:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2.html

Regards,

EvilOne

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