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ronnie8778
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Move datastore to another esxi host

Hi, is it possible to move a datastore from one esxi host to another esxi host, I tried search online, most of the questions asked are moving VM across datastore.

I have a esxi host mounted with a datastore which are located on the same server hardware, however I would like to move this data store to esxi host 2, is that possible?

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asajm
Expert
Expert

Hi ronnie8778

There are some questions

  Did you mean the local data store?

  Do you mean the locally installed ESXi OS?

  What data do you want to transfer?

  Please, more explane.

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ASAJM
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depping
Leadership
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No, you can't move the datastore from one host to the other when it is a local datastore. You can move the data of course, but not the datastore when it is not a shared storage system.

gregsn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

>>is it possible to move a datastore from one esxi host to another esxi host, I tried search online, most of the questions asked are moving VM across datastore. I have a esxi host mounted with a datastore which are located on the same server hardware, however I would like to move this data store to esxi host 2, is that possible?

A local datastore will be formatted with some version of VMFS, and as long as the new ESXi host has the ability to mount the version of VMFS on your datastore, there really shouldn't be too much trouble mounting it on the new ESXi host.  For best compatibility with VMFS, as long as your target ESXi host is running a version of ESXi that is the same or newer than the source ESXi host, it should mount the datastore without too much difficulty.

If local your datastore is on a RAID array and is currently connected to a RAID controller, you'll need to make sure your RAID hardware supports migrating arrays to a different controller (of same brand).  Most decent RAID controllers will support this, but you'll want to double check before moving the disks.  Alternatively, you could move the disks and controller to the new host to maintain the RAID configuration without doing an RAID import on a new controller.

With that said, you'll also want to make a full backup of the data on the datastore before doing anything.  There is always the possibility of catastrophic hardware failure whenever it is being handled.  Also, if you'll need to ensure all the storage related drivers are properly installed on the target host (eg. RAID controller drivers).

rlund
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Perhaps enable storage vmotion and migrate the virtual machines between servers as needed?

Roger Lund Minnesota VMUG leader Blogger VMware and IT Evangelist My Blog: http://itblog.rogerlund.net & http://www.vbrainstorm.com
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ronnie8778
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Enthusiast

Sorry for not putting up the whole picture.

there are 2 clusters in my environment, recently my management would like me to reorganise the VMs, only found out one esxi host on cluster 1 might need to migrate the datastore to another esxi host on cluster 2 for the space, the storage are local disk on esxi server, not iscsi storage, I was thinking if it is possible to migrate the datastore from the esxi host on cluster 1 to another esxi host on cluster 2.

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ronnie8778
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

THank you, I think I have no choice but to migrate the VMs over manually.

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ronnie8778
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I see, I think I have no choice as both esxi servers are different hardware and the other host doesn't have enough harddisk slots for that.

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ronnie8778
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Enthusiast

this is not possible because both are from 2 different cluster, perhaps if I join 2 cluster together then it should be doable.

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rlund
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well technically i think it could be possible to SCP the files between hosts if all the vms are off.

Roger Lund Minnesota VMUG leader Blogger VMware and IT Evangelist My Blog: http://itblog.rogerlund.net & http://www.vbrainstorm.com
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ronnie8778
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

if scp the files, will the esxi host recognise the newly copied vm?

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rlund
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

First, this isn’t a supported solution. Make sure you have backups.

you would need to sync the data and then browse the datastore and register the vnx file.

http://www.vmwarearena.com/how-to-copy-files-between-esxi-hosts-using-scp-command/

Roger Lund Minnesota VMUG leader Blogger VMware and IT Evangelist My Blog: http://itblog.rogerlund.net & http://www.vbrainstorm.com
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