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baber
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How can migrate esxi from local disk to SD card

I have installed my esxi on local disk. now want to know Is that possible due upgrade esxi to 7U2  and put it on SD card instead of local disk ?

in the other hand is that possible migrate esxi from local disk to SD card or I have to do fresh install on SD card ?

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depping
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There's no migration option really, you need to do a fresh install.

 

And also, as stated, currently there's still an issue with SD cards, as well as VMware is recommending to ensure that the "OS DATA" part of the installation does not reside on SD, so make sure you follow those best practices to be future proof.

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a_p_
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I'd wait for now. Once an update/patch becomes available, make sure that you read the release notes, and the recommendations before you decide to install ESXi on an SD card.

André

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depping
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agreed, i would wait

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a_p_
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I'm not aware of a supported way to do this. Also note that - at least in my opinion - as of ESXi 7.0 you should say good bye to SD cards.
If you want to go with SD cards anyway, wait until VMware releases the fix for the current driver. See https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/SD-Boot-issue-Solution-in-7-x/m-p/2852027 for more information.

Also see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.upgrade.doc/GUID-DEB8086A-306B-4239-BF...

~snip~
The recommended ESXi 7.0 install options are the following:

  • An 8 GB USB or SD and an additional 32 GB local disk. The ESXi boot partitions reside on the USB or SD and the ESX-OSData volume resides on the local disk.

~snip~

André

baber
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Thanks . but this issue will be solve . now want to know is that possible migrate esxi from local disk to SD card or had to do fresh install ?

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a_p_
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I'm not aware of a supported way to do this, so you'll need to reinstall ESXi.

André

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baber
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Is this problem exist just on Esxi 7U2 ? or exist for all version of vSphere7  ?

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a_p_
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According to the community post (see link in my first reply) this issue has been introduced with vSphere 7.0 Update 1.
However, the hardware recommendations have been available since GA.

André

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baber
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According to this KB   https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83376?lang=en_US

I think the problem not solved yet . my esxi is 7.0.2 and installed on local disk and I want migrate from local disk to SD-card (32G) now what is your recommendation ? Do you think that is better wait for the next vmware release or do migration from local disk to SD-card ?

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depping
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There's no migration option really, you need to do a fresh install.

 

And also, as stated, currently there's still an issue with SD cards, as well as VMware is recommending to ensure that the "OS DATA" part of the installation does not reside on SD, so make sure you follow those best practices to be future proof.

baber
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I just want use you experience , Do you suggest wait for the next release of esxi to solve SD-card issue ?

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a_p_
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I'd wait for now. Once an update/patch becomes available, make sure that you read the release notes, and the recommendations before you decide to install ESXi on an SD card.

André

depping
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agreed, i would wait