Move vCenter from VM to Physical ?

[AndyR8939]

Hi All,

Currently have vCenter running in a VM, but would like to move it to an existing physical host.

Is this possible?

If not, is it also possible to have another vCenter server running so that if anything happens to my VM version, I have vCenter install running on a physical host as well?

Thanks,

Andy

Message was edited by: AndyR8939 - I have typed vSphere instead of vCenter.

[snellutla]

I can say it is possible, though i haven't tried V2P. please, follow the document in this link.

http://www.vmware.com/support/v2p/doc/V2P_TechNote.pdf

Good Luck.

[AndyR8939]

Thanks for this, but what I meant was, I already have a server in place already running a few other applications. I just wanted to add vCenter onto this, not take the whole VM and virtual 2 physical it.

Thanks though.

Andy

[weinstein5]

The install of ESX/ESXi is simple enough I would not worry about migrating it to a physical server but simply do a fresh install and then use something like VMware converter to move any VMs to the new physical host -

The second part of your question just because you have a second esx host you will need the VMs ti be able to restart on the second hosts which in essence is VMware HA -

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[AndyR8939]

Thanks again.

Sorry though, I think I've explained myself badly here (bad day).

I currently have 3x ESXi 4.1 hosts running on 3x HP DL360 servers connected to an iSCSI SAN. These 3x physical hosts are running all of my VMs, and one of these VMs is running vCenter. My managers have asked me to move vCenter from a virtual machine, and install it onto an exsting Physical Machine. They are worried about having vCenter on a virtual machine and would prefer this be on a Physical Server instead.

I have a management server with a few other apps on, so I would like to install vCenter on there if possible, and either have this as the only vCenter install (if I can move all the current settings) or ideally as a second instance incase my VM ever dies.

Thanks and sorry for the mis-explanation.

Andy

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

Take a look at this - kb.vmware.com/kb/5850444.

If you're not running vCenter 4.1 keep in mind that it will require a 64 bit OS.

You can also use HA to protect a vCenter VM or fault tolerance if you're licensed for it.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

Now available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL.

[AndyR8939]

Thanks, thats what I was looking for.

Personally i'd rather keep it as it is in a VM but my managers have asked me to move it to a physical host (which is 64bit as well) so this is something for me to look into.

In the meantime I have to figure out whats gone wrong with my HA stopping me vMotion my vCenter VM the last few weeks ( vMotion stopped working for some VMs )

Thanks Dave.