Virtual Machine Migration accross datastores

[Selspiero]

Hi all,

I have a quick question regarding the type of migration i need, and how to do it!

I have 2 clustered ProLiants attached to an MSA1000, running 3 VMs for Exchange 2007.

Buying 2 new ProLiants and new HP EVA Storage to replace the MSA

All 4 ESX servers will be managed by the same VIM Server. Plan is to get rid of the MSA, so need to look at my options for migrating the VMs on the current storage.

I understand i can use Storage VMOTION, but this would mean having to attach all 4 servers to both sets of storage, which i dont want to do, plus i dont think i have the required disk space left on the MSA.

So my other option is to cold migrate, which i am quite happy to do - but cant find any information on how to go about it? Obviously the VMs are powered down, and files copied to the new storage...

could someone point me in the right direction of either some documentation, or let me know your thoughts

(oh, just incase you need to know - the current esx servers are 3.0.2, new ones will be 3.5. Might upgrade the older 2 befire this happens if needed)

Thanks again

[Chris_Howard · Accepted solution]

For cold migration simply shut down your VM, right click, and select migrate.

This will fire up a wizard, where you can select the target host and data store etc.

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[Selspiero]

so once my new ESX servers are within the VIM - the migrate wizard will allow me to move them across to the new datastore, even though they are on seperate datastores?

thanks for the help

[Chris_Howard]

Yes - the data will be copied through the service console network connection.

See the admin guide (page 239) for more info.

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[Selspiero]

excellent, thank you very much

E