How to move VCSA to new datastore?? (Essentials Plus)

[tlyczko]

<rant>

In order to get more money out of people, VMware di$abled live $vMotion in the E$$ential$ Plu$ version.

This makes things rather difficult at times.

</rant>

Is there a good way to move the VCSA to a new datastore without having to reinstall it and restore from backup??

Support has been extraordinarily unhelpful...I think I got someone who doesn't understand the request...

Thank you, Tom

[daphnissov]

That's not correct, vMotion is available with Essentials Plus. If that's not working, then there's a problem in your environment.

[msripada]

I think storage vmotion feature is not available with essentials plus ... vMotion is available

Thanks,

MS

[daphnissov]

Yes, sorry, thanks for clarification. svMotion is not available.

[advunips2]

1. Connect the new datastores to the ESXi Hosts.

2. Connect with the web GUI directly to the ESXi Host.

3. Shutdown the VCSA

4. Deregistrate the VCSA

5. Move the VCSA via file explorer

6. After moving registrate the VCSA

7. Boot VCSA

As alternative if you have Veeam B&R you can use Veaam Quick Migration (Quick Migration - Veeam Backup Guide for vSphere ).

I hope this is helpful.

Peter

[a_p_]

In order to get more money out of people, VMware di$abled live $vMotion in the E$$ential$ Plu$ version.

Really? With which version/build did they disable it? I may have missed something, but I'm not aware of this.

The last time I worked with an Essentials Plus edition, the option to migrate both, host and storage (which IIRC was added in v5.5) was available in the Web Client. This feature even allows to do a live migration without shared storage.

André

[mcphersontech]

Thanks Peter, marked as helpful, I've seen this method work.  But, here's my rant anyway.  I'm right with Tom.

<rant>

You nailed it Tom, dollar signs sprinkled all throughout.  This is so frustrating.  VMware is certainly about nickel and diming.  As a home lab user, and new to VMware/ESXi, I used the free ESXi 6.5 to get some experience.  Just upgraded to 6.7 without vCenter's assistance (the cli method) without an issue.  Had a need to move a VM to another datastore, watches some videos, vCenter made it simple with vMotion... buy the license for these enhancements?, maybe...  Also, I'm running FreeNAS iSCSI datastored and noticed the VMware + ZFS snapshot feature.  It snapshots the VM then the filesystem then removes the VM snapshot.  Pretty cool concept for rolling back.  But, guess what, ESXi free edition prevents automated snapshots.  Great... So, I'll buy the license.  On a very limited budget, I dropped the $700 for Essentials.  Comes with a few ESXi keys and the vCenter key.  I installed the VCSA on a smaller datastore.  Thought, hey, I can just use the vCenter migration tools... WRONG... see attachment...

I'm bummed that I spent the money.  I thought I would gain more (practical/useful) functionality with vCenter.  My environment is so small... automated snapshots alone was not worth $700.

I'm sure the flamers will come out.. "You should have done your homework, yada yada".  I missed the distinction in all the how-to videos.  I think it's subtle.  Each how-to shows vMotion moving VM between datastores and between ESXi hosts.  Point and click.. vSphere is GREAT!   What I missed, "vSphere vMotion" != "vSphere Storage vMotion"  So, it seems that each (even very similar mechanics) has a price tag.  Again, I'm very frustrated with VMware.

</rant>

Thank You

Mike

[IRIX201110141]

The vSphere Essentials (Both editions) can only migrage VMs storagewise when the VM is shutdown. So you can migrate every VM...except the vCenter because you need it for this job.

- Use Veeam (Quick Migrate/Replication) or your normal Backupprogram and perfrom a Restore

- In the old vCenter days we use  vmkfstools to move the vDisks around. But today a VCSA is based on 4371 different vDisks and its not fun

Regards,

Joerg