Migration from free ESXi (V2P or V2V)

[Orange22]

Hello,

I have a problem,

Actually i want to migrate (deplace storage and configuration) from one ESXi free to a physical server or another free ESXi

I tried to just copy ".vmdk" and other configurations files in the other server but my VM has 4 ".vmdk" on different datastore and the total of all these ".vmdk" is 1.8 To and one of my .vmdk (500 Go) is on a SSD and i would like to keep this configuration ...

I tried to export but same problem....

How can i transfer this VM to another server (the best for me is V2P) ?

Sorry for my english, i'm not perfect,

Thank you in advance !

[Devi94]

you can use vmware converter to move it to different esxi host.

[Orange22]

Thank you i will try that.

[Orange22]

Actually,

How can i transfert all my ".VMDK" on different datastore ?

With vmware converter i can just choose one datastore on the destination.

Thank you in advance !

[Devi94]

Dont you have space in datastore to keep all vmdk's together ? we dont have option in vmware converter to keep vmdk's in different datastore.

You can try export and import VM in that case.

[continuum]

Use any Linux-system - can even be a VM and then connect to both ESXi-hosts.
on Linux-system:
mkdir /esxi-in
mkdir  /esxi-out
sshfs -o ro root@esxi-source:/ /esxi-in
sshfs root@esxi-target /esxi-out
Once that is done you can copy VMs and VMDKs from anywhere on ESXi-source to anywhere on ESXi-target
Price: performance drop due to ssh-encryption
Advantage: no limitations due to free ESXi-license

[Orange22]

Ok i see.

So i need to have a datastore egal to the size of all my .vmdk.

Thanks

[Orange22]

Ok thanks i will try this solution.

[Orange22]

So i tried to use the linux method (with sshfs).

It works for VM with a little storage ... but the problem with my VM is always:

- 4 .vmdk on 3 different storage

- 1 .vmdk must have on SSD

So when i transfert all these storage (+ configuration file), on different datatstore in the destination server, when i want to restart the VM i have an error (i can't restart the VM)

(Cause : TypeError: Cannot read property 'value' of undefined vm)

So maybe i just made a mistake... and i think it is my VM in the destination server which don't know where are vmdk files.

Exemple:

Source esxi:              VM_1 --> datastore_1 = configuration file + 2 .vmdk_1 + .vmdk_2 / datastore_2 = .vmdk_3 (on SSD) / datastore_3 = .vmdk_4

Destination esxi :      VM_1_copie --> datastore_01 = configuration file + 2 .vmdk_1 + .vmdk_2 / datastore_02 = .vmdk_3 (on SSD) / datastore_03 = .vmdk_4

Thank you !

[Orange22 · Accepted solution]

Actually i resolve my problem...

It was really stupid !

I set to my new ESXi the destination of the swap file (in a Datastore with a lot of space).

In addition i edited the ".vmx" file (on the new server), to change the path of every virtual disk (".vmdk")

Then I added it to the inventory ("Add to the inventory" on the datastore)

And all works great !