Need to migrate from AMD to Intel host, unsure how to proceed in production environment

[wmckay85]

Hello all,

hopefully I'm not the first to have this question.

I have an old ESXi 4.1 host with an AMD cpu that is being retired asap, we have a new ESXi 5.5 host with an Intel CPU that is ready and has a vcenter appliance already in place with both hosts added to its inventory.

I have read that I need enhanced vmotion features but I'm not sure how to proceed. It's a production environment and I don't feel comfortable doing this without some better understanding of what will happen once I start configuring things.

So if there's a guide out there or if someone can lend their knowledge I would greatly appreciate it.

I will subscribe to this topic so that I can respond in a timely fashion.
Thank in advance to any replies.

Edit:

Follow up question. These machines are not in a cluster, they are in the same datacenter. Will I be able to move host+datastore when the machine is powered off? Currently it only shows the datastores on the current host when I start the process.

[rcporto]

Even with EVC you can't migrate VMs between Intel and AMD hosts, since they are different vendors, and EVC support clusters only with single vendor.

Anyway, the migration is easy if both hosts can see the datastore where VMs are stored, you will only need shutdown the VM, migrate to the new host and power on the VM.

[wmckay85]

I had read something along those lines but it was dated 2010, thanks for confirming.

I'll look in to making sure both datastores are available to each host.

Follow up:

I cannot test without powering a machine off, but wit hit on I only have the current datastore available.

When I choose to move host + datastore will the other datastore become available? Are there settings I need to change to make it available? These hosts are not a cluster but they are in the same datacenter.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community - Yes you will need to power off the VM to move it from one an AMD host to an Intel Host -you will not be able to utilize vmotion or storage vmotion -

Since it sounds like you have vcenter - power down the vm and migrate it -if both hosts can see the same datastore there will be no need to change datastores -

[vickey0rana]

To answer to your follow up questions, YES you will see the other datastore those are attached to your target ESXi servers so if you have mgmt network connectivity between INTEL and AMD based ESXi you can move storage as well without sharing datastores across BUT it might be time consuming (depending on your network speed and NIC of ESXi).

[wmckay85]

Thank you, is there a way I can make sure I have management network communication beforehand?

I really do appreciate all these replies. Hopefully I can give back some day!

[LikeABrandit]

Usually, the fastest way to check management vmkernel connectivity is to enable SSH on one host, connect and login through SSH, and run a vmkping from the management vmk to the IP of the other host. I.E.:

Host 1

vmk0 - Management - 192.168.0.10

vmk1 - vMotion - 192.168.1.10

Host 2

vmk0 - Management - 192.168.0.11

vmk1 - vMotion - 192.168.1.11

1) Enable SSH on Host 1

2) Connect and login to Host 1 via SSH

3) Run command: vmkping -I vmk0 192.168.0.11

It's not strictly necessary for this, but I prefer using the -I option to specify interface. It's worth noting that since the old host is 4.x, if you want to use the -I option you should run the vmkping from the 5.x host. I don't believe it existed in 4.x.