vStorage Motion question

[JESX35]

Hello All,

We currently have a new SAN on order and we would like to move all the data from the old SAN to the new.  The plan was to attach one of are new ESX servers to both SANS and use storage vmotion, however we are currently only running Vmware Advanced which doesn't offer the vStorage option.

Where do you have to license this option ? is it just at the host level ? so could we just license one of the hosts for Enterprise Plus and the rest for Advanced and use vStorage motion then ? or does vCenter need to have a certian level of licensing to do this ?

[Troy_Clavell]

If you are not licensed for Storage vMotion on both source and destination ESX(i) Host, then it won't work.  Storage vMotion is licensed at the host level, not vCenter, but to use Storage vMotion you need vCenter.  You will need to have Enterprise licensing to get Storage vMotion

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

[twoodvm]

You can't change hosts when you do a storage VMotion.  You change host (VMotion), change datastore (storage VMotion) or if the VM is powered off, change host and datastore (cold migration).

So yes, you could license just 1 host, VMotion the VMs to that host, then storage VMotion to the new LUN then VMotion back to the other hosts.

But is the expense of an Enterprise license for 1 host worth the benefit of the storage VMotion? Alternatively you could schedule out of hours outages and do a cold migration.