switching vcenter servers

[VMMikeC]

Hi,,

Running View 4.6, I have 5 pools created using vCenter1. vCenter 1 is currently managing esxi1 and esxi2. This vcenter server is also shared with our virtual servers. My plan is to create vcenter2, I would like to remove esxi1 and esxi2 from vcenter1 and add them to vcenter2. I also need to remove vcenter1 from View Connection Server and then add vcenter2.

I'm thinking that this is not possible because according to the View Admin Guide on page 14, it says to remove a vcenter server instance from View manager, you first need to "delete all view desktios that are associated with the vcenter server instance"

any thoughts?

Mike

[kgsivan]

Please refer Moving SVI pool across vCenter servers retaining user's data and ownership

[VMMikeC]

very helpful, but currently I'm not using linked-clones. I'm using full virtual machines with the pools. I will start using linked-clones on the new server

any info for this scenario?

[kgsivan · Accepted solution]

If you are using full virtual machines you need to follow below proceedure.-- It is not a perfect workaround and would tedious job in case of large pool with and user ownership.

• From view manager, delete the the pool -- it will ask delete from view manager <or> delete from disk - proceed with delete from view manager only.
• Now pool configuration will be removed leaving all the VMs in vCenter server.
• Now connect any ESX server from new vCenter server to this vCenter server.
• Migrate all the VMs to new esx and new datastore.. (If the same datastre is visble in new vCenter server you may probably unregister those VMs from source vcenter server and register in destination vcenter server)
• New create a Manual pool using existing VMs from new vCenter server
• If the old pool was a dedicated pool, make note of those VM-to-User assignments and apply those user ownership manually. There are UI options to do this manually inside the pool inventory.

Pease be aware that  your automated full clone pool in old VC become a Manual Pool in the new VC

Hope this helps.

Best Regards

Siva

[VMMikeC]

thanks...that did the trick and wasnt so bad after all.