Migrating ESX 2.5.2 VMs to ESX 3.0.2

[ANSA]

Has anyone used VMware Converter to migrate VMs on ESX 2.5.2 host to ESX 3.0.2 host ? Also, can you share other methods used ?

Thank you

[ejward]

When I did the upgrade, I was fortunate to have extra hardware and storage. I had an ESX 2.5.2 host with about 20 VMs. I had set up a cluster of 2 3.0.2 hosts. We hired a consultant to come down and do the migration for us. We payed them a ton of money. We did an image of each VM (I think we used Acronis). We restored it to the new server. Then, we right-clicked and selected Upgrade hvirtual hardware. That was pretty much it. We didn't really need the consultant.

[ANSA]

Thanks for your response. This is what I have in mind to do. I am trying not to have to go down the image route as this seems to be very time consuming. How long did it take you to migrate one VM, approximately. I have to migrate 83.

[ejward]

I guess it depends on the size of the VMs. The disk has to be copied across the network no matter which method you use. Most of our VMs were less than 10 GB. Now that I recall, our 2.5 server and our 3.0 server were on different LUNs on the same SAN, so all of our copies went across fiber. The "Upgrade virtual hardware" part only takes seconds. part of that upgrade is giving the VM a new NIC so, i think I had to go back in and reassign the IP address. I apologize, it was a long time ago.

Here's another option, buy a copy of vRanger from Vizioncore (Or a trial). Back up all your VMs on your 2.5 server and restore them on 3.0. I'm pretty sure that will work.

On another note, why not go to 3.5 rather than 3.0?

[mforbes]

The last time I upgraded from 2.5.x to VI3 was the following:

New a installation of VC 2.5 (as upgrading the VC is more difficult, unless you NEED to keep historic records)

New installtion of ESX 3.5 on new piece of hardware

Present new LUN to ESX 3.5 host (also make sure the old LUNS are presented to the 3.5 host)

Add both the ESX 3.5 and 2.5.x hosts to the VC.

Open the VMware Converter tool and point to the VM you want to migrate. Since you should be migrating from the same SAN, the process took us about 5-8 minutes per VM. It also asks if you want to upgrase VMware tools, then upgrade the hardware.

That was pretty much it, but will require some downtime to migrate from one VMFS to another.

Mike Forbes

[ejward]

that's right. When we upgraded from 2.5 to 3.0, we upgraded VC from 1 to 2 or something like that. it made more of a mess then it was worth. When we went from 3.0 to 3.5, we did a fresh install of VC on a new server. Sure, we lost historical data but, we weren't really looking at it anyway.

[ANSA]

I agree that going to 3.5 would be the logical thing to do, and I recommended it, but the corporate decision is 'not at this time'. I was thinking to use esxRanger. Have you tried this product?

[ejward]

I use esxRanger for backups now. We have used it for a couple of years now. It's very easy to point it at one host and say "backup up all these VMs". Then, point it at another host and say "Restore all these backed up VMs here". Make sure you check first but, i don't believe that ESX version matters. Within reason anyway. You will still have to do the Upgrade Virtual Hardware after the restore and maybe mess around with the IP address too. Also, you'll have to upgrade vmware tools too.

[mforbes]

vRanger is a good backup tool, but not the ideal way for converting VM's. Vizioncore does have another tool called vMigrator which is also a great tool for migrating from 2.5.x to 3.5. but it does not give you the option to install VMware tools at the time of migration. So, you have to bring down the VM ans install the tools manually afterward.

Mike Forbes

[azn2kew]

You can check out VISBU and esXpress FREE backup/restore tools. If you stand up new ESX 3.5 hosts with new LUN and have old LUN visible than you can implement these tools for free. esXpress is limited to bandwidth usuage and could be slower. I just use VISBU just to do backup of my .vmdk image files for DR purpose.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[dominic7 · Accepted solution]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned dMotion, where you can move a VM from esx 2.5.x to 3.x without downtime. Basically, you need to set up the 2 systems so they could VMotion, then if you have a LUN for swing space you can create a VMFS3 on that lun. Then just right-click and migrate. The dMotion process will copy the VM to the new LUN, but you'll still have to schedule some downtime to upgrade the vritual hardware and (optionally) tools.

[mforbes]

As far as the dMotion suggestion. If memory serves, dMotion is what is known in 3.5 known as storage VMotion. Storage VMotion is used for migrating from one datastore to another, but not from one VMFS to another. So, I'm not sure that this would be a viable solution for migrating from 2.5.2 to 3.0.2.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike Forbes

[dominic7]

A VMFS volume and a datastore are interchangeable terms. DMotion would definitely apply here if set up appropriately, I've moved several hundred VMs this way. Storage VMotion and DMotion are not the same thing, DMotion was originally crafted for the purpose of moving a VM from a VMFS2 volume to a VMFS3 volume without downtime and introduced in ESX 3.0.1. Storage VMotion is for moving a VM from one VMFS3 volume to another without downtime.