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Chandrashekhar
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Steps for VMotion

Hello everyone,

Is it possible to do VMotion betweeen two ESX servers without virtual center? I have trial version of VI 3 which has ESX hypervisor and virtual center client. I want to do vmotion using VI SDK 2.

Is it possible to perform VMotion using all this?

Do I need any licence for this?

Also, when I try to see licencing configuration of ESX server, I cant see anything related with VMotion. I am attaching screenshot of configuration section of ESX Server. Can anyone please explain these issues?

Both ESX servers are installed on their respective hard disks and are not booted from SAN. Both the ESX servers can see one disk of SAN. What else do I need for VMotion? Hardware of both ESX servers is same. So there is no issue of cpu compatibility check.

Thanks in advance.

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matthiaseisner
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Hello,

Quite a simple answer: NO.

You can also install VC server in evaluation mode. VC server is the central management instance which allows you to VMotion VM's. If you want to use the SDK to move VM's you must use the API of the VC server and not of a standalone ESX host.

If you want to use these features in production (VMotion, DRS) you need an enterprise licence for the ESX hosts and a VC server licence.

Ad screenshot: You're not using VC server and so all features which require the VC server are not available like VMotion.

Requirement for VMotion: Shared storage for the VM's, multiple networks (production NW for the traffic, VMkernel port for the VMotion traffic). VMkernel port for the VMotion traffic should reside on his own physical NIC with a GBit Network! Also you need consistent labeld networks!

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Matthias

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vinoji2005
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Hi ,

Vmotion basic requirement is configure Virtual centre and VM storage is common storage path. Below is VMotion concept document its can help to you

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_3_server_config.pdf

matthiaseisner
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Hello,

Quite a simple answer: NO.

You can also install VC server in evaluation mode. VC server is the central management instance which allows you to VMotion VM's. If you want to use the SDK to move VM's you must use the API of the VC server and not of a standalone ESX host.

If you want to use these features in production (VMotion, DRS) you need an enterprise licence for the ESX hosts and a VC server licence.

Ad screenshot: You're not using VC server and so all features which require the VC server are not available like VMotion.

Requirement for VMotion: Shared storage for the VM's, multiple networks (production NW for the traffic, VMkernel port for the VMotion traffic). VMkernel port for the VMotion traffic should reside on his own physical NIC with a GBit Network! Also you need consistent labeld networks!

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Matthias

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Chandrashekhar
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Thanks for quick reply.

I have some more questions.

You mentioned that I need to use the API of the VC server for vmotion using SDK. So, what's the name of that API? Is it freely available? I dont want to use vmotion feature in production software. I am building demo application which will demonstrate capabilities of SDK. Also, if its not possible to do Vmotion using VI SDK 2 or VI SDK 2.5, then why do tasks of vmotion are made available in those SDKs?

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matthiaseisner
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Hi,

I think there is a little bit of misunderstanding in place right now. VC server is the central management instance for your whole VI environment. Some features are only available if this central instance is installed and configured correctly. These feature are e.g. VMotion, DRS, HA, etc. If you have no VC server you will not be able to do any VMotion things.

If u want to script those things, u must the API of VC, because this central instance is responsible for these tasks.

I am not a specialist to script these things, but pls refer to this link:

There are the descriptions of the API's and SDK's. I think they will be helpful.

Cheers,

Matthias