Migration to another host fails

[ice89]

Hi Community,

i wrote a script to shutdown, enable memory and cpu hotplug, migrate to another host and start the vm after all tasks done.

I use the following command to migrate the vm to another host:

Get-VM -Name $strNewVMName | Move-VM -Destination esxhost1

This command starts the task to migrate the powered off vm from esxhost2 to esxhost1

After the task finished, the script starts the vm with the command: Get-VM -Name $strNewVMName | Start-VM

But now comes my problem:

I see in in the recent Tasks that the vm becomes unregister from the "new" esxhost1 and reregister to esxhost1. The vm starts now on the esxhost1

It works fine when i migrate the powered off vm manually via vCenter but not with my script

Does anyone have any idea to solve my problem?

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas

[jpsider]

Can you provide your entire script? removing pwd's or ip information?

Also, are you moving just the host? or are you migrating from one datastore to another?

-Thanks

[ice89]

No problem, no secret or passwords in the script....

i just want to change the host not the datastore....

The script is to move automatically the vm's from a cluster without EVC to a cluster with EVC...

#Snapin für VMware hinzufügen (Add VMware Snapin)
Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

#Beim ersten mal Ausführen (Only on first run)
#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore


#Verbindung zu vCenter aufbauen (Connecting vCenter)
connect-viserver vcenter
write-host Verbunden mit vCenter 

#Import der CSV Datei 
Import-Csv deploy.csv | 
foreach { 
    $strNewVMName = $_.name 
    #write-host $strNewVMName

   write-host "Shutingdown VM:" + $strNewVMName
   Get-VM $strNewVMName | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

   $VMPowerState = Get-VM $strNewVMName | select PowerState


   while ($VMPowerState -match "PoweredOn")
   {
   sleep 5
   $VMPowerState = Get-VM $strNewVMName | select PowerState
   }


   #Enable-MemHotAdd $strNewVMName
   write-host "Configure Memory HotPlug:" $strNewVMName
    $vmview = Get-vm $strNewVMName | Get-View
    $vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec

    $extra = New-Object VMware.Vim.optionvalue
    $extra.Key="mem.hotadd"
    $extra.Value="true"
    $vmConfigSpec.extraconfig += $extra

    $vmview.ReconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)
    sleep 2

    write-host "Configure CPU HotPlug:" $strNewVMName
    $vmview = Get-vm $strNewVMName | Get-View
    $vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec

    $extra = New-Object VMware.Vim.optionvalue
    $extra.Key="vcpu.hotadd"
    $extra.Value="true"
    $vmConfigSpec.extraconfig += $extra

    $vmview.ReconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)
    sleep 10


   write-host "Move VM to esxhost01"
   Get-VM -Name $strNewVMName | Move-VM -Destination esxhost01
   sleep 10

  # Get-VM -Name $strNewVMName | Start-VM


}  

[jpsider]

Can you clarify exactly what the problem is?  I'm a bit confused as to what you are seeing and what you would like resolved.

[ice89]

Hi,

most works, only the last part makes problems.

1. Shutdown VM - works

2. Add Mem/CPU hotplug - works

3. Migrate VM to other host - seems so

4. Start VM on new host - don´t work

I don´t unterstand why the vCenter remigrate the vm to the "old" host.

When i migrate the vm via script and start the guest via "Start Guest" Button, the same thing happens.

A migration via vCenter works fine.

[jpsider · Accepted solution]

Thats certainly very strange, I walked through your steps manually, and was able to power on a vm, on the new host without a problem. Do you have DRS setup? or is that located on local storage of that host?

[ice89]

Hi jpsider,

thanks for your help...

I´ve just tested and it works without DRS...

[RvdNieuwendijk]

If you have DRS enabled on your cluster, when you start a virtual machine, DRS will determine the optimal host to start your vm, and will start the vm on that host. So if you use DRS and want to run a vm on a particular host, the best thing you can do is to create a vm to host DRS affinity rule.

[ice89]

I know the feature of DRS...

But all hosts (six) are under 40% utilization.... I thought it should therefore work

Thanks for all