Move-VM between ESXi hosts managed by vCenter Server

[LibrarySysadmin]

When I invoke Move-VM to migrate VMs between two ESXi hosts (7.0.2 build 18538813), both managed in the same vCenter Server (7.0.3 build 18778458), I'm receiving errors that appear to conflict.

I want to move both compute and storage from one ESXi host and datastore to a second ESXi host and datastore. Both ESXi hosts are in the same datacenter.
The manual vSphere Client steps are: Migrate > Change both compute and storage resource > Select compute > Select storage > Select networks > Select vMotion priority > Finish.
I want to reproduce that vMotion in PowerCLI. I run into errors that appear to conflict, and I'm not sure what I'm missing:

PowerCLI:
VMware.VimAutomation.Core 12.4.0.18627056

Connect-VIServer -Menu
# connect to both ESXi hosts and to vCenter Server

$vmName = 'web01.domain.tld'
$destESX = 'vm02.domain.tld'
$destDS = 'Primary-vm02'
$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName
$esx = Get-VMHost -Datastore $destDS -Server $destESX
$ds = Get-Datastore -Name $destDS -Server $destESX

Move-VM -VM $vm -Destination $esx -Datastore $ds

When I invoke Move-VM while the ESXi hosts are managed by the vCenter Server, I get the following error:

Move-VM Access to resource settings on the host is restricted to the server that is managing it: 'x.x.x.x'

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Move-VM], VimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_BaseCmdlet_UnknownError,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.MoveVM

Following KB 2021618, I stop vpxa service and restart hostd on both ESXi servers, then establish a new Connect-VIServer session with each ESXi. When I run Move-VM again, I see this error:

Move-VM This functionality is only available when connected to VMware vCenter Server.

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Move-VM], VimException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_ConnectivityServiceImpl_TryValidateVCConnection_ConnectedToESX,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.MoveVM

I am missing something here. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

[LucD]

When you had that 1st error where you connected to only the vCenter, or where there also connections to the ESXi nodes?

[LibrarySysadmin]

Thank you for that pointer - I think I was inadvertently only connected to one, instead of all three endpoints. I was running Connect-VIServer individually for each endpoint, instead of for all three at once.

When verifying that my PowerCLI session is connected to both ESXi hosts and vCenter, I get this result:

PS C:\Users\user> connect-viserver -server vm01.domain.tld,vm02.domain.tld,vcenter.domain.tld

Name                           Port  User                          
----                           ----  ----                          
vm01.domain.tld                 443   root                          
vm02.domain.tld                 443   root                          
vcenter.domain.tld              443   VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator   

PS C:\Users\user> Move-VM -VM $vm -Destination $esx -Datastore $ds 
Move-VM : 1/14/2022 2:16:31 PM	Move-VM		This functionality is only available when connected to VMware vCenter Server.	
At line:1 char:1
+ Move-VM -VM $vm -Destination $esx -Datastore $ds
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Move-VM], VimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_ConnectivityServiceImpl_TryValidateVCConnection_ConnectedToESX,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands. 
   MoveVM
 

[LucD · Accepted solution]

If both those ESXi nodes, source and destination, are managed by the same vCenter, you should only connect to the vCenter.

[LibrarySysadmin]

Great, thank you.

I connected my PowerCLI session to only the vCenter, and received the exact same error:

Move-VM		This functionality is only available when connected to VMware vCenter Server.

That suggested the problem was my Move-VM syntax, rather than the connection to vCenter. It looks like my command needed to have -Destination parameter set, as well.

I changed my Move-VM command to the following, which ran successfully and had the desired result:

$vm = Get-VM -name 'web01.domain.tld -Location 'vm01.domain.tld'
$destESX = Get-VMHost 'vm02.domain.tld'
$destDS = Get-Datastore 'Primary-vm02' 

$vm | Move-VM -Destination $destESX -Datastore $destDS

Thanks for your help!