Seeding a Live or Bulk Migrations

[SimonLong]

Hey, I am currently testing moving workloads back and forth between my on-prem environment and VMC on AWS.

Is there a way to seed data with HCX? If so, how?

Example: I have a large VM running in VMC and I want to Live or Bulk Migrate it back to my on-premises data center. I have a slightly older copy of the VM's VMDKs already on my on-prem storage array. Can I use the older VMDK as seed data for a Live or Bulk Migration? I want to reduce our Egress costs and the time to migrate.

I believe it can be done using vSphere Replication. But I can't seem to find a way to do it with HCX.

Any help would be gratefully received. 

Cheers Simon.

[arora83]

In best of my knowledge, at this time we can't use the original source powered OFF VM to act as a seed for a reverse bulk migration in HCX. Hopefully this gets added as a feature in a future release.

[grosas]

Hi Simon,

The Bulk and RAV migration workflows don't support it today.  It is being considered as an enhancement.  Although it's not quite a coordinated migration, as a workaround to reduce the egress cost, you could use the HCX Disaster Recovery workflows to consume the original seed data and recover the VM to the original site once the changes are replicated.

[SimonLong]

Thanks Gabe! I'll take a look at the Disaster Recovery workflow.

[grosas]

Sounds good.  Just keep in mind - this is a workaround for your testing, if you’re using a network extension,

You will have to manage the power states at the origin,this operation assumes the source become ceases to exist at the “disaster side”.  A coordinated bulk migration will more gracefully manage the states to minimize downtime.