Moving VM from one Data center to another DC

[vmk2014]

HI all,

      I have a VM  Windows 2008 R2 64 bit  with 2 Drives 32 GB each and i need to migrate from one Data center to another Data center.Can any share the approach on this server movement  ? Thanks in advance.

Summary :-

Source VC1-  VM 

Target VC2 :-  Need to migrate to VC2

thanks

vm2014

[vfk · Accepted solution]

As you moving between two different vCenters, you can export the VM as OVF and then import into the second vCenter.

[vThinkBeyondVM]

Migration from VM1-Host1-VC1 to VM1-Host2-VC2 is not supported use case with latest vCenter release.

Workarounds:

1. You can remove the host from VC1 and add it to VC2. Migrate your VM to other host in VC2. Once migration is complete, remove Host which was on VC1 from VC2 and add it back to VC1.

2. Follow the way which is suggested in above response.

[vmk2014]

Hi Vicky,

   The  VC2 is having different subnet. Let me know what changes require. Thanks

thanks

vm2014

[admin]

To add Host to VC2 and Migration there is no network changes required. Only thing is your ESX host has to be reachable from VC2.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

DJ

[vfk]

Are we making the assumption that the two vCenter servers  are in the same location?  Are they located in two separate physical DC? Or are you just referring to data center construct in the sense of inside vCenter server hierarchy?  Please provide additional and how you are setup.

[abhayabhi1]

You can also move vm using SCP.

1.Login on ESX host where your VM is exist in VC1 using putty.

2. type cd vmfs\volumes

3. ls

3. cd datastore where your VM file

use below command to complete copy source to destination.

scp -r /vmfs/volumes/datastore/VM foldername root@Destination host name:/vmfs/volumes/destination datastore

[vmk2014]

Hi vfk,

     Two VC are located in different locations i.e VC1 - UK  VC2 - Nether Land.Yes they are located in two different  physical DC. Thanks

thanks

vm2014

[admin]

In this case I would suggest you to add both the host to same VC and use vm migrate to move VM from one host to another and re add old host back to its VC. This would be best solution to move a VM. However you need to migrate VM in power off condition because in this case vMotion wont be possible.

Thanks,

DJ

[vfk]

Because of the two systems are different physical location, I would recommend export the VM as ovf, copy it across to the new DC during a quiet period, like over a weekend and import into the new vCenter.

Moving a ESXi host from one vCenter to the other would work, but you will create resource fragmentation where you cannot make use of the host resources in either location.   Depending on connectivity and bandwidth available between the two sites, it could a long time to move the VM and possibly saturate the connection.