Guest fails to power on after moving to a new Datastore.

[TurboIT]

I've been having this problem alot when migrating machines. I browse to the appropriate datastore and right click on the folder of the guest, and I select 'Move'. I choose the new datastore and sit back and watch the progress bar. Once its done migrating I add the guest back to inventory and attempt to power on. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to repeat the above steps twice. Why would it be missing files when trying to power on when I move files this way?

[kjb007]

Are you using this process because you don't have vCenter? Are you removing the vm from inventory first before you attempt to move the vm folder? I would not suggest this method of migrating data. A datastore browse view is filtered, and does not always represent what is actually located physically on the disk. Instead, use vmware converter. It will allow you to convert an existing vm to a new location, and then you can remove the old one as needed. That way, you also don't have to remove/add to inventory.

-KjB

[TurboIT]

I am doing this within vCenter. What is the correct way to move a machine to a new datastore through vCenter?

Edit:

I beleive I just figured out my own question. Correct me if there is a better way. Power down the guest, select MIGRATE. Then choose the new datastore when given the option. Is this the correct method?

[kjb007 · Accepted solution]

Right-click on the virtual machine, click migrate. Follow the prompts for destination until you get to Select datastore. Click the radio button to 'Move virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks' and select the new datastore.

-KjB

[Troy_Clavell]

or sVMotion, either using the GUI plugin, or CLI

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_rcli.pdf

I like the GUI, myself, here's a good how to

http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/vmotion-drs-high-availabil...