ESXi 4.1 to ESXi 5.1 vMotion Question

[rburneyx10]

I have a customer that has two esx servers one is esx 4.0 and the other is 4.1. The esx 4.0 is an IBM System x3650 m2 with an Intel Xeon E5530. The esxi 4.1 is an HP Proliant DL360 G6 with an Intel Xeon E5506.

My question is does esxi 5.1 support vmotion and if so will it work with these processors being different?

Please let me know if you need any additional information.

Thanks,

Ryan

[elgreco81]

Hi,

They are the same family 55xx, so I don't see why not. You could always reference to this link

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1991

ESXi supports VMotion but it will depend on your edition (ess, ess+, std, ent or ent+) if the feature is licensed or not. I belive that from ess+ you are able to vMotion VMs.

Regards,

elgreco81

[Phoenycks · Accepted solution]

I'd like to add that you can certainly configure vMotion between these 2 servers (license permitting of course), but you may need to enable EVC to do so as they are slightly different revisions.

EVC is configured in the properties of the cluster. You'll want to pick the highest version that is compatible on both hosts. In order to enable it, you may need to power some guests down on the newer processor box.

Jes

[rburneyx10]

Is EVC supported is ess+? Also woul dit be best to have a physical box with vcenter and not a VM?

[elgreco81]

Hi,

I would say "yes" it is supported but I don't have an Ess+ in front of me right now to check it. I looked for official documentation but found nothing but this (not official)

http://vmwaredepot.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/cofiguring-evc-on-vsphere-cluster.html

As a general recommendation, vCenter virtualized is the best option. As a general precaution, if you have services dependencies like DNS, DHCP, etc, make sure you have a "power on" roadmap if everything is virtualized (for instance, if you configure your storage to use DNS resolution but your DNS server is a VM in that storage...you have a problem ).

Regards,

elgreco81

[rburneyx10]

I want to make sure I have this correct. If i am implimenting vmotion I am going to purchase ess+ and i will have a vcenter virtual machine which is what manages vmotion and ha and other technologies with ess+. I have a physical DC, DNS, DHCP so that is not a concern. I should not need any additional servers to impliment vmotion. Is that correct?

[elgreco81]

Correct. Also, let me help you with the "googeling", maybe I found something...if not, hopefully someone will give us an answer.

Regards,

elgreco81

[elgreco81]

Ok. According to this posts in the community, EVC is not a feature of Ess+ kit. It's for version 4...

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1365098

According to this vmware training official video, EVC is a subfeature of DRS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH0he0nz8Mg (minute 20)

DRS is a feature of higher editions of vSphere.

Sadly, I wasn't able to find any official document that explicity said that "EVC is not a feature of Ess+" or the opposite.

Sorry...

Best regards,

elgreco81

[rburneyx10]

Ok so i just got off the phone with vmware pre-sales support and they said that EVC is supported in any edition that supports vmotion. So it looks like the customer isnt going to purchase this till april of 2013 so i guess i will have to wait then and find out. Thanks again for all of you help!!

[elgreco81]

Good luck!!!