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esnmb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Cold Migrate vCenter to new Hosts

Here's what I have going on:

I have to migrate all VM's from our old hardware environment to new one.  We are basically replacing all hosts and the underlying storage.  I was going to add the new hosts into a new cluster, then cold migrate VM's to it.  The problem comes in when I have to move the vCenter server VM.  I guess I would directly connect to the host that has vCenter with FastSCP and then move the vCenter folder/files to a storage location.  Then I would connect to one of my new hosts with FastSCP and copy vCenter to it then add to inventory.

Look about right?

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vmroyale
Immortal
Immortal

Yes - that or use the Export to OVF function in the vSphere Client.

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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esnmb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

ok cool.  Thanks!

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BenLiebowitz
Expert
Expert

Is the vCenter VM on shared storage that is presented to both the old and new host?  if so, power it off on it's current host, remove it from inventory (be careful not to delete from disk. Smiley Happy ).  Then, on the new host, browse the datastore, find the vCenter VMX file, right click and ADD TO INVENTORY. 

Hope this helps. 

Ben Liebowitz, VCP vExpert 2015, 2016, & 2017 If you found my post helpful, please mark it as helpful or answered to award points.
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esnmb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Sadly no.  They don't have underlying shared storage...

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ch1ta
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

When the similar issue arose in our environment, we put into use Veeam Free Edition with its Quick Migration functionality which allowed us to migrate promptly several VM between ESXi hosts/cluster.

Since we were moving VMs between hosts with compatible CPUs, VB&R used SmartSwitch technology. This technology suspended VMs only for short period of time and later VM was resumed on the new host. Using such scenario guaranteed for us minimum downtime (much better than simple cold migration, actually).

So, all you need to do is to add both hosts to the VB&R console, choose corresponding VM and perform Quick Migration. Works like a charm.

Thanks.

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BenLiebowitz
Expert
Expert

You could also use the VMware Converter Standalone to migrate by connecting HOST1 as the source and HOST2 as the destination. 

Ben Liebowitz, VCP vExpert 2015, 2016, & 2017 If you found my post helpful, please mark it as helpful or answered to award points.
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