VMware Cloud Community
yves
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Migrate vm's from ESX 2.5.3 to ESX 3.01 with VC 2.01 -> backup of vm

Hello

I'm busy migrating my vm's to the new environment. I'm using VC 2.01 and I am migrating my vm's when the are powered off because I had to rename the network connection in the ESX 3 environment, a lot of vm's have to change ip-address and because some of them are on a SAN that isn't visible by my new ESX 3.01 servers.

No before starting with production vm's can someone tell me what is the procedure to have a backup. Can I just copy my .vmdk and .vmx file to a temporary location and if the migration goes wrong I can re-use them by copying the files back to their original location and register the vm on the old 2.5.3 ESX server?

Thanks for the help.

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Mayur_Patel
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

To answer your original question, yes, you can just copy the vmdk & vmx files of a VM to a separate location. Then, if something goes wrong, copy them back and re-register the vm.

Mayur

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

When Ihad a D-Motion failure the new vm deleted and the old one remained in its original location without any modifications.

Reply
0 Kudos
kbk00
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

You post is kind of confusing, at least for me. Are you migrating by physically copying over the disk files or via some other method? Are you upgrading the 2.5 servers to 3? Do you absolutely need to do this upgrade?

I think the answer that will solve your problem is to use VMware Converter and migrate over the VMs that way, since using a 2.5 to VI3 VMotion (dmotion) isn't available due to the SAN issues. Converter works very well, doesn't take a long time, and is a great solution for smaller shops (and can even migrate live systems without too much downtime).

This would enable you to turn off the old system (on the 2.5 host) and bring up the new on on the VI3 side. If there are problems, you can bring up the old instance just like it was prior to the migration.

Does that help?

If you found this posting to be useful, great. I didn't waste your time.
Reply
0 Kudos
kbk00
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

I don't know what I was thinking... you can dmotion if you like since the disks are being migrated to the new SAN. whoops...

Anyway, either solution should work for you (dmotion or converter).

For me, dmotion wasn't available due to the VMotion network backend so Converter was the way for me. It's gone very well and is very easy. I've heard good things about dmotioning but like I said, didn't work out for my environment.

If you found this posting to be useful, great. I didn't waste your time.
Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

In VC2 power off the VM then right click, then migrate to Vi3 host...

Afterwards right click then upgrade Virtual Hardware then power on VM then install/upgrade VMtools

Reply
0 Kudos
yves
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I am using VC 2.0 to migrate (powered off vm) from the ESX 2.5.3 to the ESX 3.01 server. It is working fine. I first migrate the vm (located on SAN) from the ESX 2.5.3 to the locan disk of the ESX 3.01. Then I migrate the vm from the local harddisk to the SAN visible for ESX 3.01.

Reply
0 Kudos
yves
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Ok but incase of a failure with the migration ( I had one with a REL4 and after the migration both vmdk and vmx file were corrupt) I want a way of backup.

Can someone help me out.

Reply
0 Kudos
kbk00
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

use Converter. that doesn't impact the source VM at all. I think if you try a hot migration there's something installed and I don't believe any of the bits are touched on a cold migration (VM is off). At any rate, it's a small app that's installed to help the migration. You'll be able to turn it on again if there's something wrong with the new image of that VM.

It's a safe method...

If you found this posting to be useful, great. I didn't waste your time.
Reply
0 Kudos
Mayur_Patel
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

To answer your original question, yes, you can just copy the vmdk & vmx files of a VM to a separate location. Then, if something goes wrong, copy them back and re-register the vm.

Mayur

Reply
0 Kudos