VIC SVmotion Plugin Not Able to Move VMDK and Leave The Rest

[emcclend]

I'm using ESX 3.5 update 4 with the SVmotion plugin 1.0.0.0. I have a VM that has 2 disk both currently on the same FiberChannel datastore. I wan to move the second disk (D:\) to a SATA datastore and leve the VM and the first disk on the FiberChannel datastore. I right click the VM, select Migrate Storage, and I highlight the second disk. I then drag it to tje SATA datastore and click apply. After a few seconds, I get the error message:

The requested Storage VMotion would move a virtual machine's disks without assigning the virtual machine a new home, but such a move is not supported on the source host 'hostname'.

If I try to move the entire VM with both disk, that works just fine, but I only want to move the second disk. Is it possible to move just one disk from a VM and not have to move the entire VM? I thought the point of SVmotion was to have the ability to move VMDK's around.

Thanks

[wgerrish82 · Accepted solution]

you'll need to use the Remote CLI to do this.

First install the VI Remote CLI, you can download it from the following locations. http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html.

then open a command prompt and browse to the bin directory inside C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\.

Next run the following command to put svmotion in to interactive mode

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>svmotion.pl --interactive

it will then ask you to enter your VC details and once you are connected to the VC you'll have to enter your datacenter name (case sensitive)

then it'll ask you to enter the location of the vmx,

Enter the datastore path of the virtual machine (e.g. myvm/myvm.vmx

then it'll ask to enter the name of the destination datastore (in your case the name of the SATA datastore)

then you will be prompted with the following

you will be prompted with the following message if you VM has multiple disks.

You can also move disks independently of the virtual machine. If you want the disks to stay with the virtual machine, then skip this step..

Would you like to individually place the disks (yes/no)?

type yes

it will now ask you to enter the path of your vmdk so you have to enter the path for both disks.

myvm/myvm.vmdk

fibredatastore

myvm/myvm(disk2).vmdk

SATA datastore

have a look here as well if you get stuck.

http://itgerrish.blogspot.com/search/label/Vmware

Thanks

Will

[emcclend]

I tried doing SVmotion using the command line and it does work. However it is moving the entire VM with both VMDK's. I choose "yes" when asked about moving disk independently and I choose just the second disk and the new datastore. When asked to place another disk I choose "no" and the process started.

When moving disk independently, do I have to specify the location of each disk or just the disk to be moved?

[wgerrish82]

yes you have to specify the location of every disk. so in your case it would be something like

Would you like to individually place the disks (yes/no)? yes

Enter the datastore path of the VM.

Enter the datastore path of the virtual machine (e.g. myvm/myvm.vmx

😞 vm/vmCdrive.vmdk

Enter the name of the destination datastore: fiberdatastore

would you like to move another disk? yes

Enter the datastore path of the VM.

Enter the datastore path of the virtual machine (e.g. myvm/myvm.vmx

😞 vm/vmDdrive.vmdk

Enter the name of the destination datastore: SATAdatastore

would you like to move another disk? no

this will do exactly what you want.

Thanks

[emcclend]

wgerrish82,

Thanks for the help. It is working perfect. I did notice that the *.VMX file will be moved to the location of the first disk specified. I tried it on a server with drives across 3 datastores and it work great. I'm going to try the non-interactive mode and pre-script everything and see how that works.

[wgerrish82]

excellent news.

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