Moving ESXi from USB to SSD

[GeekWolf]

I talked about this in my other thread but I felt it was better to create a new one. Im trying to move from a USB stick install of ESXi to a SSD. After i image the drives and load from the SSD it panics not able to mount the USB. Is there away around this? Thanks.

[dominic7]

Why don't you just use ESXi installable to lay down a fresh image. This is of course assuming you're using the ESXi embedded....

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

If it's the same hardware then you can use vicfg-cfgbackup to backup and restore your configuration.

[GeekWolf]

I cannot seem to find any download for these tools

[Dave_Mishchenko]

http://www.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=VI-RCLI-U2

[GeekWolf]

Thanks! For the life of me i could not find this thing, LOL. I swear im really not that dumb

[GeekWolf]

Does the host have to be in maintenance mode? Im getting an errors posted below.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you do a search of the forum you should be able to find something on that error. I believe it was due to a missing path.

[GeekWolf]

Thanks for the info. You are correct. As per this thread Here. "Thanks Dave, all fixed now. I renamed the libeay32.dll in

c:\windows\system32 to libeay32.dll.old and then copied the one in the

c:\program files\vmware\vmware remote cli\perl\bin into that folder." Followed that and it was corrected. Will be moving the system this eveing.

[GeekWolf]

If I install a new ESXi on the new SSD and restore the backup config will it erase my datastore files? I'm hoping not but i noted this on the documentation i read.

NOTES

• While this command can be used to restore your

configuration, it is not a substitute for backup of your virtual

machines. At this time, a new install of ESX 3i Installable will wipe

out any existing datastores that exist on the host when you perform a

new install.

Taken from this guide.Thanks.

[GeekWolf]

Any comments on previous post?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What sort of storage is your existing datastore on? If it's NFS or iSCSI then the install would have no access to it during the install and for FC you could unzone the LUNs first and then add them after.

[GeekWolf]

Well it is local storage but the ESXi installer wouldn't have access to the RAID because i have to add the driver after the install as ESXi does not have Atecra drive I need loaded by default. So if thats the case i would think the data should be safe... My apologies for my impatience Id just like to have all my ducks in order so i can do this operation this eve. I promise im learning thou :smileygrin: