ESX 3.5 + vCenter 4.0 Storage VMotion

[aenagy]

In vCenter 4.0 is it possible to start a Storage VMotion migration on an ESX 3.5 host? In my lab setup I have only one migration option.

[dominic7]

It is possible, the vCenter 4.0 upgrade is definitely worth it imho. You also get the ability to do thin provisioning.

[Troy_Clavell]

In order to for sVMotion to work in vSphere4, you must have your VM's running on ESX4 Hosts, the Guest Tools need to be up to date and the virtual hardware needs to be v.7

You cannot use the vCenter4 option on 3.5 guests.

[dominic7]

wha? That's not true at all. Right now I have an ESX 3.5.0 Update 2 host svmotioing a guest ( vHardware 4, 3.5.0 U4 tools ) from thick to thin.

[Troy_Clavell]

so you are using the built in "migrate" piece of vCenter4 to sVmotion your 3.5 guests to new datastores? I stand corrected and apologize if I gave wrong information.

[AWo]

But you need the guest to run on ESX 4 if it has more than one vDisk and you want to move the vDisks independently.

With ESX 3.5 you only can move the whole guest with all vDisks to a new datastore.

AWo

VCP / vEXPERT 2009

[Troy_Clavell]

...as I pillage through the documentation set for vSphere.

I will take your word for it since i haven't tested, but why does the OP have the option greyed out?

[AWo]

Actually I'm sitting in front of the desktop and move guests around because we are performing a SAN redesign.

I use vSphere vCenter and sVmotion them from ESX 3.5 and 4 hosts wit the the restriction on 3.5 I already wrote about. It even works without the latest VMware Tools installed.

I don't know why it is greyed out. Maybe no license (activated), maybe the host can't see the storage needed.

AWo

VCP / vEXPERT 2009

[Troy_Clavell]

learn something new everyday.... Maybe I should test better before I make such a bold statement.

Thanks, Andreas!