migrate VM from esxi standard 5.5 to esxi essentials 5.5

[andoven]

My co-worker created some VMs on an ESXI 5.5 standard server, and I need to migrate them to an ESXI 5.5 essentials server.

Is it possible to do that?  If so, what is the process I should follow?

[ThompsG]

Hi there andoven,

Yes it is possible - I would look to download VMware Converter and use this to migrate the VMs from one to the other: VMware vCenter Converter: P2V Virtual Machine Converter | United States. With this I'm assuming that you don't have shared storage between the two hosts and while there are other options this is probably the easiest to use.

VMware Converter is wizard driven and should be a simple case of you simply following your nose. If you do have any issues then please let us know.

Kind regards.

[kermic · Accepted solution]

I would definitely look for options to do a vMotion as it is the safest (least chances of data destruction / corruption / config changes) method from all described below.

Shared storage would be the easiest path - put the VM on datastore that is accessible to both - source and destination hosts. Remove the VM from inventory (do not delete from disk!) on source host and register / add to inventory on destination.

Another option - in case you have a common local network accessible on both - source and destination hosts, temporarily add your destination host to vCenter, where source host is registered (using a standard or eval license) and do a vMotion (classic or enhanced, depending on architecture and type of storage used).

Yet another option - export the VM to OFV on source and import on destination. Do test your VM after you have imported it into destination and before you have deleted the source.

VMware Converter is a valid option too, however I would leave it as a last resort since it might actually modify the VM content.

Hope this helps.

[andoven]

I opened a ticket with VMware and they said it's not supported.

I did some thinking and came up with the following:

1. Connected both ESXi hosts to my SAN storage

2. Removed the VMs from inventory on host 1

3. Added the VMs from inventory on host2

4. Did a storage vMotion from SAN to local storage so that there would not be any disk conflict between host1 and host2. Found out later that I could have kept my VMs on my HDS AMS1000,if I had dedicated one datastore to one ESXi host/cluster, and other datastores to the other ESXi host/cluster.

Mission accomplished!