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klimer0
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VM migration between ESX 2.5.1 and ESX 3.0.2

Hi all,

I've an old ESX platform running in VMware ESX 2.5.1. My ESX 2.5.1 servers are manged by a VC 1.2. On this platform, I've about 40 VMs in production.

I've built a new ESX 3.0.2 platform based on two IBM HS21 bade server with a new DATASTORE hosted on a FC SAN. I've also installed a new 2.0.2 VCMS server.

I wanted to use VMotion to migrate my VMs from the old platform to the new one. But I've read on the VMware website that this is only possible with ESX 2.5.2 or 2.5.3 !!!

I can't stop all the VMs simultaneously due to the fact that they are in production and they are hosting critical applications ..... ?:| But as the VMs are redundant, I can stop one the the two similar VM first, migrate them on the new ESX 3.0.2 infrastructure and then migrate the other VMs in a second step.

I've three different questions for you :

1) What scenario could I apply to migrate my VMs without changing anything on my old platform ?

2) If I want to upgrade my old 2.5.1 servers in 2.5.2 or 2.5.3, can I do this without stopping all my VMs on the two ESX 2.5.1 servers ? In fact, I want to know if the upgrade of one ESX 2.5.1 server sharing a DATASTORE with another 2.5.1 server could have issues on the running VMs hosted on the ESX 2.5.1 server (the one which will not be upgraded first)

3) Are there any nkown issues in adding a ESX 2.5.1 server in a 2.0.2 VCMS ?

Thank you in advance for any suggestion and help you could give to me

Regards

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jhanekom
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You can add ESX 2.5.1 to VirtualCenter 2.x: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_compat_matrix.pdf (page 2)

I think Dominic was suggesting using cold (powered off) migrations, which ARE supported between those versions - perhaps the support engineer misunderstood what you were trying to do. It's only the "DMotion" (powered on) process that was qualified between very specific versions. (I also recall at the time when those statements were issued, that statements were made on these forums to the effect that the DMotion version requirements are quite limited as the only exhaustively tested the most common "in the field" version combinations.)

If you insist on using VMotion and on a supported configuration, you could do add an intermediate step of installing VMware ESX 2.5.3 with the latest patches on the new server, migrating all your VMs to that, recommissioning the old server with ESX 3.0.2 with the latest patches, performing a DMotion to that server, the recommissioning the new server with ESX 3.0.2. Sounds like an awful lot of work (and risk) to me, though Smiley Happy

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weinstein5
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Without being able to power down your vms to eithe upgrade your ESX host or cold migrate tot he new environment the answer is VMware Converter - you will be able create the VMs on the 3.x hosts while they are still running -

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
dominic7
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You have a few options given the scenario that you have provided. However I have to question why you are migrating to ESX 3.0.2? It is a platform that is already outdated. I would suggest that you migrate to ESX 3.5.0 Update 1, though it has not been out long ( ESX 3.5.0 since Dec 21 2007, and Update 1 was released in March ) but the platform is significantly more stable and feature rich than ESX 3.0.2. You should also upgrade your VC to VC 2.5.0 update 1 as well.

Since all of your VMs are redunant ( meaning one can be powere off at a time without affecting your service ), just set up the new servers, power off one of the VMs, then right click and migrate the VM to the new ESX host. Since you have redundancy this process is easier than using DMotion/VMotion to move the VMs since they will require downtime at some point to upgrade the virtual hardware and vmtools.

klimer0
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Hello Weinstein5

Thank you for your answer.

As I said, I can shutdown one of the two redundant VMs. I'm not obliged to migrate running VMs but I have to keep one running VM when migrating the redundant one.

Using VMware converterwas another solution I thought about, but I've 50% Windows VMs and 50% Red Hat VMS. VMware converter is a technical answer to my problem for the Windows VMs. But what about the Linux ones?

Thanks

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klimer0
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Hello Dominic7

Thank you for your answer.

Concerning ESX 3.5, this version was not (for the moment) fully qualified in my company. The latest qualified version is 3.0.2.

So I had to install a 3.0.2 platform for the migration of the old 2.5.1 environment.

The process you detailed is exactly the one I wanted to apply. But my biggest problem is that my VMware contact told to me that this kind of migration is not supported between ESX 2.5.1 and ESX 3.0.2. It's only supported between ESX 2.5.2 or ESX 2.5.3 and ESX 3.0.2 !!!!!

I'm wondering if a migration of one ESX 2.5.1 server of my old platform in ESX 2.5.2 could be done without any impacts on the second server (whiwh will stay in 2.5.1) and on the running VMs this 2.5.1 serve !!!!!! By doing so, I would be in the compatibility matrix of VMware and couls have a VMware support in case of issues during the migration.

Can someone answer to this particular question ?

thanks in advance for your help

Regards

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jhanekom
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You can add ESX 2.5.1 to VirtualCenter 2.x: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_compat_matrix.pdf (page 2)

I think Dominic was suggesting using cold (powered off) migrations, which ARE supported between those versions - perhaps the support engineer misunderstood what you were trying to do. It's only the "DMotion" (powered on) process that was qualified between very specific versions. (I also recall at the time when those statements were issued, that statements were made on these forums to the effect that the DMotion version requirements are quite limited as the only exhaustively tested the most common "in the field" version combinations.)

If you insist on using VMotion and on a supported configuration, you could do add an intermediate step of installing VMware ESX 2.5.3 with the latest patches on the new server, migrating all your VMs to that, recommissioning the old server with ESX 3.0.2 with the latest patches, performing a DMotion to that server, the recommissioning the new server with ESX 3.0.2. Sounds like an awful lot of work (and risk) to me, though Smiley Happy

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klimer0
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Hi all

I've tried a cold migration on a test VM after having added my ESX 2.5.1 in my VCMS 2.0.2. It works fine.

I will use this way to migrate all the VMs, taking into account the redundancy for each application (one of the two or three servers hosting an application will be stopped while the others will keep on running).

Thanks to all foir your answers

Regards

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