Move VMs from one ESX to another

[grob115]

Hi, my server has an issue with one of the RAID drives failing and the replacement isn't able to resync.  The hosting company is going to setup a new ESX for me to migrate everything across.  From what I understand vMotion will only work if the two ESXis are using shared storage, which isn't the case here.  Is the best, quickest, and safest way to do this is by powering off all the VMs, take a snapshot on each of them, and restore the snapshot on the new ESXi?  Is there a way I can setup the the new ESXi such that it can access the datastore on the old ESXi in order to copy the snapshot?

In fact for each of the VM, I see the following in its own folder in the Datastore.  Not sure what the <code> part is but it's different per VM and looks something like d7743765.  Can I simply copy all of these over in their own folders, and everything will be fine?  Is there a document describing a task like this?

<server name>.vmx

<server name>.vmdk

<server name>.nvram

vmware-1.log

.

.

vmware-<n>.log

vmware.log

<server name>.vmxf

<server name>.vmsd

<server name>-<code>.vswp

[DSTAVERT]

I would read the following KB articles about snapshots.

Snapshots
Best Practice http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279
Understanding http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015180

The simplest will be to use Veeam fastSCP (a free tool) to copy the files between hosts and then browse the datastore on the new host and Add to Inventory.

[AndreTheGiant]

Usually you can copy the files of powered off VMs, and then re-add to the host inventory (with right click on the vmx file).

Note that, if you use scp or FastSCP or similar tools the thin disks (but also RDM disks) will be converter to thick disks.

Andre

[DSTAVERT]

Copy the the folders and all the contents to the new server.

[grob115]

Thanks.  Am reading the VMware Consolidated Backup.  Any idea if this is required?

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcb_pubs.html

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_vcb_15_u1_admin_guide.pdf

As for the SCP, is this only possible if I have access to the CLI?  My only exposure to ESXi is via the vSphere client interface.

[DSTAVERT]

Veeam FastSCP is a Windows GUI app. http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html That should be all you need to make the move. Just copy the folders from one ESXi host to another. Browse the datastore on the new ESXi host, Right click on the VMX file and Add to inventory.

[grob115]

Great thanks.  However, the two ESXi hosts are in US while I'm in Asia.  Rather than using FastSCP to copy from the old ESXi to my PC in Asia, and then upload to the new ESXi, with the largest VM allocated with a 250GB disk, can I not login to the CLI and do scp or sftp to the new ESXi?

If I login via the CLI, is there a way to check which login account I can use by looking at the users on vSphere client?  Not sure how to check which one of the list of users I can use.

[DSTAVERT]

FastSCP can do a Host to Host copy.

For regular SCP

If you are using ESXi 4.1 you will need to enable SSH on both hosts. That can be done from the vSphere client. Log into the ESXi host using the root account.

[grob115]

Thanks.  Is the host to host copy means downloading and uploading through my PC?  Not sure how a client sitting on my PC in the middle can arrange a file transfer between the two ESXi elsewhere to communicate directly with each other.

[DSTAVERT]

Host to host means ESXi to ESXI. No PC in the middle. I would install on a Windows machine at the remote location anyway. Direct host to host transfer has been available for many years with FTP (FXP)

[grob115]

Great thanks very much for your news.  Learn something every day.

BTW, does it matter if my new server is ESXi 4.1 and the old one is ESXi 4.0?

[grob115]

DSTAVERT, just tried to install the FastSCP program but one of the screens asks for a domain user logon.  It says "Log on as a service" right will be granted.  When I entered my account used to login to Vista, I was given a pop up saying "LogonUser: (0x569): Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer."  Have you come across this previously?  I tried searching around for how to enable this but apparently the ntrights.exe utility available for XP isn't available for Vista.

[idle-jam]

i think you need administrator rights ..

[grob115]

Thanks that was it.  Thanks!

However, copying a 4GB file is stuck.  If I hit Cancel, it's still stuck on just canelling the job.

I have a total of 500GB worth of files to transfer.  Resorting to asking the data centre to copy it locally using an external USB hard disk.

BTW, any idea on which path is the Datastore located if I logon using the service console?  I can use the same root account I login via the vSphere client to logon to the service console, right?  I'm wondering if I can login to the old ESXi, find where the Datastore is, and sftp them onto the new ESXi.  Is this possible?  Which of the number of VMware's documentation describes the location of the Datastore?

[Pixxxx]

in an ESXi 3.5 environment virtual hard disk can be created as thin disk?

copying from esxi 3.5 to esxi 4.1 source disk will be affected in some way from the copy process?

how can be checked if thisk are thin or thick?

thanks to all