Virtual Machine Migration

[eldingo]

Hello Friends:

I am new to the world of virtualization, I know some about ESX server. We have two ESX server, and they both have local storage ( No SAN, ISCSI or NAS). We need to move virtual machines from one of the ESX servers (older box) to another (Newer Box). Both ESX servers show up in the Virutal Center Server. What is the best method to move Virtual machines from one box to another, please assist or point me to some good documentation. Appreciate your time. When I right click on a virutal machine (while it is running) I get "Migrate" option, but not sure if that would actually move the Vmachine.

Best Regards.

[azn2kew]

What version of ESX are you running? If you're running ESX 3.5 or vSphere 4.0, you would use Storage VMotion to do so. You can select Migrate option and neither relocate to different storage or you can also just migrate VM from Host A to Host B options. You can't just do two tasks at once with vSphere 4.0 so do it 2 seperate times. If using ESX 3.5 you can install Andrew Kutz storage vmotion plugin.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[danpalacios]

If your systems are on local storage, you have no live migration options. To migrate them, they will need to be turned off.

If you want to limit downtime (and there are not a large number of changes like a file server or database) then you could clone the machine, shut down the original, and then power on the copy.

[Troy_Clavell]

....another option would be to use VMware vCenter Converter.

but as others have said, without shared storage you can't do a live migration.

[weinstein5]

Since you have Virtual Center the easiest way to do this will be via cold migration - migrating the VM with it powered off - this will allow you to move the VM to the new host and the new datastore - of course this will require all the host to be part of your virtual center environment -

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[eldingo]

Thanks for all the responses. Yes, both the hosts belong to same virtual center server. But, once I powered down the virtual machine, migrate option is grayed out. Is there a knowledgebase article or white paper on how to do a cold migration from one host to another without centralized storage. And our ESX server are running 3.0 version.

-El

[arpitmpatel13]

Hi,

Check Migration chapter in

"Basic System Administration

Update 2 and later for

ESX Server 3.5, ESX Server 3i version 3.5, VirtualCenter 2.5"

You can download it from vmware resources.

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2_3i_e.html

Thanks

[arpitmpatel13]

Hi,

Check Migration chapter in

"Basic System Administration

Update 2 and later for

ESX Server 3.5, ESX Server 3i version 3.5, VirtualCenter 2.5"

You can download it from vmware resources.

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2_3i_e.html

Thanks

Please mark if helpful