V2V from ESX 3.5 to ESXi 4.1 using vCenter Converter 4.2.1 is very slow

[imotion]

I have one ESX 3.5 hosting several windows 2003 VMs and one new built ESX 4.1 located in same Data center.

ESX 3.5 is managed by virtualCenter 2.5, and the new built ESXi 4.1 is managed by vCenter 4.1. 

Datastores for these two ESX/ESXi servers are all RAID 5 disks group in each physical server.

Both ESX/ESXi servers have two NICs with 1GB network connections.

Now, the plan is to do V2V to move all current VMs from ESX 3.5 to ESXi 4.1 using vCenter Converter 4.2.1.  On the first V2V process, it is only 39% completed after almost 24 hours.  It is awful slow.  What would I do wrong?  Any suggestion welcomes.

thanks,

[arturka]

Hi

What version do you use, standalone or vCenter version of VMware converter ?

I had similar problem with older version of standalone vmware converter, problem was with NIC settings on source VM, and now I don't remember exactly waht did I set but ...

it was related with speed and duplex settings on source VM, basically try to play a little bit with Duplex (has to be set Full Duplex) and with speed settings (try with AUTO, or set it fixed to 1000Mbit or 100Mbit)

BTW, make sure that there is no backup running on source VM, this will slow down you migration to minimum or even might got failed

One more, in VMConverter 4.2.1 there is an option to throttle CPU, be sure that you didn't selected during migration wizard.

Last thing, give it a try with newest version 4.3 of VMware converter

Cheers

Artur

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Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[imotion]

Artur, thanks for you suggestion.

The source VM was powered down while doing V2V so there is no backup running .  Both ESX 3.5 and ESXi 4.1 have 1000 mb Full Duplex on networking configuration.

Any other comments?

[MauroBonder]

What type of network adapter you have configured in virtual machine ?

Check this kb http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001805

and try do with converter 5.0 beta http://downloads.vmware.com/downloads/download.do?downloadGroup=CONV5-BETA

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers. 

Mauro Bonder - Moderator

[a_p_]

The issue could be either network or disk related.

To find out whether disk issue can be ruled out, please provide some information about your RAID setup. Which controller, how many disks in the RAID set and - most important - does the RAID controller have BBU/BBWC (battery backed write cache) installed to be able to work in write-back mode?

You mentioned 39% in 24 hours, however you did not mention the disk size. If you e.g. have a very large disk, a RAID5 setup with 3 disks and a RAID controller without BBU/BBWC (operating in write-through mode) then you cannot expect a high throughput.

André

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The source VM only has 92GB.  This source VM hosted on ESX 3.5 installed on Dell PE2950 with RAID 5 (4 x 400GB).  The RAID controller is MegaRAID SAS 1078.

The destination is ESXi 4.1 installed on Dell PowerEdge R710 with RAID 5 (6 x 600GB).  The RAID controller is Dell Perc 6/i Integrated.

I don't know how to check if BBU/BBWC is installed or not.  Where should I check it?

The other thing I like to mention.  In first V2V process, I chose "VMware Infrastructure Vitural Machine" in "Select source type" (as you see in attached) and the source VM was powered off.  It took a way too long as I mentioned in the beginning.  On second try, I chose "Powered-on machine" in "Select Source type".  It took less than 3 hours to complete the conversion.  This is the part that I don't understand.

Thanks,

[a_p_]

From what you say, I think this could be an issue with the management network (SC) on the ESX 3.5 host.

Since both - converting the powered off and powered on VM - use the Management Network on the target host and the speed for the powered on VM is a lot faster, the network on the destination should be ok. The speed however (92 GB in 3 hours) makes me think that the controller does not have BBU attached. Either open the box and check whether or not there is a battery attached to the controller. I not familiar with DELL servers, but I think the RAID utility should show this too!?

You said that the network setting on the Management Port of the source (ESX 3.5) host is configured to 1000 GBit/s Full. Make sure the settings are the same on the virtual and the physical switch.

Which build number are you running on the ESX 3.5 host. Maybe there was an issue, which has been solved in a later patch!?

André