Best way to move ESXi host (and its VMs) from old hardware to new hardware

[jamesnb1]

Hello everyone,

I have an ESXi host, version 7.xx with 4 VMs currenly running on an old and dated hardware. This ESXi host is also part of a VCSA which run on a different server.

I plan to get a new hardware and would like to move/migrate this ESXi host and the 4 VMs from the old to the new hardware.

What would be the best solution/route to do this without damaging the configuration of the 4VMs and the ESXi host?

Thank you very much in advance everyone

[Sreejesh_D]

Hi, 

can you please explain what do you mean by 'move ESXi host'? is it a nested VM? 

[IRIX201110141]

1. Install and configure ESXi on your new HW
2. Add the new ESXi to your vCenter
3. Use the "migrate" function to transfer the VMs from old to new ESXi
4. Remove old ESXi from vCenter inventory

You cant easily migrate ESXi config from old to new HW. There is esx-backup which only can restore if ESXi is on the same version. Yes there is "Host-profile"

Regards,
Joerg

[stadi13]

I recommend to install the new hardware with ESXi from scratch and configure all the required settings new. Then you add the host to the current vCenter. From vCenter you will be able to vMotion the VMs from to old to the new ESX host. Keep in mind that you need to turn off the VMs for vMotion, when you migrate from Intel CPU to AMD CPU.

Regards

Daniel

[alantz]

Should be easy. Just make sure your hardware can run ESXi and install.  I usually let a new host on new hardware run a couple of days to give me a warm fuzzy its solid and won't crash on me. Migrate your VM's from the old cluster to the new cluster. You could also export/import if that works better for you and downtime for the VM's isn't an issue. Once they are running on the new host I take a backup and/or snapshot then update their VM compatibility and VMtools and then its golden. 

--Alan--