Relocate all VMs (vmdk files) to another location

[limvalley]

HI,

Currently, we have a vCenter 4 managing 2 ESX 4.0 update 2 servers with HA/DRS setup. We have about 35 VMs averaging 70GB in disk size. We need to relocate our data to another location. This new place will also use vCenter 4 with 2 ESX 4.0 update 2 servers, although the hardware is different. There is no network connection between these 2 locations and I was thinking of using this method.

Add a 3rd ESX server to the cluster at present location and present the existing SAN to it.

Clone the VMs and storage vMotion them to the local storage of the 3rd ESX.

Remove the 3rd ESX from the cluster and transport it to the new location

Add it to the cluster at the new location and present the SAN to it.

Storage vMotion the VMs to the SAN and vMotion the VMs over to the ESX server.

Repeat this task until all VMs have been moved.

Is this a workable idea or should i do it different?

Thanks.

al.

[Villag3Idiot]

That is probably going to be a good approach to get this done.

Make sure that you first vMotion the machines so that they are running on the newly joined host in the cluster, otherwise you wont be able to use Storage vMotion as the other hosts will not have access to the local datastore on the newly added host.

You obviously want the VMs running in the second site only once you have moved them? What is your reasoning behind the cloning of the virtual machines before Storage vMotion? If you just svMotion and transport the clones while the others are still in production, the clones will be out of date by the time you have re-imported them in the second location.

Alternatively, you could use a backup application such as vRanger or veeam in an evaluation mode to take VM image based backups that you could transfer down and restore into the second site. But you'll need to be careful using this method with servers such as domain controllers if you are running a windows domain...

I think the best method would be the step by step approach, whereby you svMotion a few VMs onto your new ESX host, power the VMs down and then transport them to the other site, adding them to the new cluster. Just be extra careful on the journey over with the ESX server... 😉

[iw123]

Hi,

I agree, using a spare ESX would work ok.

As a possible other option, you could either copy the contents of the datastore to some external storage - see this link for an example: http://www.vladan.fr/plug-in-the-external-usb-drive-to-esx-server-directly-to-backup-or-copy/

Or if you didnt want to connect an external disk to your esx server you could use something like fastSCP to copy the files onto storage connected to your workstation.

I'd work with copies/clones of your VMs if you can get the downtime as leaving the originals intact will leave you with a back out plan should there be any problems ad you need to try again.

Regards,

Ian

[limvalley]

hi Villag3Idiot & iw123,

thanks for the ideas.The reason i want to clone is to make sure i have a roll back option in case something goes wrong, for example i dont make it to the 2nd destination alive or something...

I tried copying the VMKDs to a usb attached to my vCenter but the process took too long. I'm gonna check out fastSCP and see how it works. But thanks guys for the replies. Gives me some peace of mind to know that it's workable.