What is the best way to move an image from esxi 4 to esxi 5? vCenter Converter?

[Susanyu]

I have ver 4.3.0, does this version work? Normally how long it take? thanks!

[a_p_]

It depends on the virtual disk format of the source VM. In case of thick provisioned disks you could just copy (WinSCP/FastSCP) the files to the new host. In case of thin provisioned disks, copying is not the appropriate method since it will inflate the thin provisioned virtual disks. Converter is a method that will work in any case (as well as exporting to OVF/OVA and re-importing the VM). However, this will modify the UUID and MAC address of the VMs which might not be what you want in any case.

Regarding speed, it depends on the network speed, disk-write speed and obviously on the size of the VM. There's also a tweak which can be used to speed up the converter in case you don't need to encrypt the traffic. See e.g. Re: Poor transfer rate using Converter 5.0 Standalone compared to 4.3

André

[Virtualinfra]

Best way is first upgrade the vcenter from 4 to 5.

Add ESXi5 host to the vcenter were esxi4 is there.

Just migrate the VM from esxi4 to ESXi5.

upgrade vmware tools on migrated host.

then upgrade the hardware to version8 from 7.

refer the below upgrade

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-upgrade...

If you have standalone host. you have below option.

Present the LUN to ESXI5 server which are presented to esxi4 in which VM are there.

Now take down time for VM.

Un register VM from esxi4 and register in ESXI5.

upgrade vmware tools on migrated host.

then upgrade the hardware to version8 from 7.

Repeat this for all VMs one by one.

[Troy_Clavell]

Do you have vCenter and both hosts are being managed by the same vCenter Instance?  If so, you may find the quickest way to move the guest would be to, if you have shared storage, is just do a vMotion.  From there if your host can see the destination Hosts Storage, you can then Storage vMotion the disk from one datastore to the next.

You can also do a cold migration and move both the guest to a new host and datastore at the same time.  This will require the VM to be done.

As for Converter, that is always a good option.  Using Converter5 would be the best choice if your destination is an ESXi 5 Host.  To speed things up, see the thread, Poor transfer rate using Converter 5.0 Standalone compared to 4.3

As for "how long it will take", the answer is it depends.  How much data are you moving, are you resizing any drives?

[Susanyu]

when i use converter to move the image from 4.0 to 5.0, after submitting jobs, the progress stuck at 1% for 30 minutes. Is there a way that I can take a look at log to see whether it is working properly. I canceled moving job early because I want to modify that <useSsl>false</useSsl> parameter in xml. before I modify this parameter, it passed 1% in 20 minutes, but it will take 2 days to convert. so I canceled the job, but now the job itself cannot start.

please help!!!

[Troy_Clavell]

if you set the SSL encrytpion to false, you'll need to restart your converter service. After that, try to start the job again, or start a new job.

[Ashrafali79]

Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100458...