Converting a VM to VM makes it so slow...

[Litejk]

Hi, I am trying to a migration of a vCenter 4.1 VM from an ESXI 4.1 host to another ESX 4.1 host, with no shared storage, only local SATA disks.

After reading in the forum, some mentioned that using Converter, by first shutting down the vCenter VM and then using converter to the other ESXi host (they are in the same datacenter).

However, there are several issues with this.

1. The VM is extremely slow, both in boot up and in GUI performance, if I log on the the VM from console, altough it says that the driver for the graphic adepter is in fact the VMWare driver. Reinstalling it did not help.

2. The nic is converted into a E1000 nic, instead of keeping the old VMNET3 nic, and the settings are turned back to DHCP instead of static IP. How come? I guess I could solve this by removing the nic, and adding a new one, but should not Converter keep the same settings?

3. I also wonder if it is related to the disk layout. The VM it self has 2 partitions, 1 of 40 GB and one of 100 GB, both are thin provisioned. In Converter, it presents by default to make the disks thick and to change the cluster size to 4 KB for both partitions, does it really matter? I mean, since the VM is on a ESXI 4.1 host with only DAS storage and it is migrating to another ESX4.1 host with identical hardware.

Or are the other ways to move the vCenter VM to host 2, so I can do some long needed updates to host 1 ?

[Sreejesh_D · Accepted solution]

i guess converter cloned the VM, thats the reason for the configuration changes.

for copying its good to follow the steps in KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000936.

Copying or moving the virtual machine and virtual disks

Follow these high-level steps to move a virtual machine to an alternate location:

1. Select the virtual machine.
2. Commit all snapshots on the virtual machine. For more information, see Committing snapshots from within the Service Console (1006847).
3. Identify the working directory of the virtual machine.
4. Identify the location of all virtual disks.
5. Power off the virtual machine.
6. Create a folder for the copy of the virtual machine.
7. Copy the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) to the new folder.
8. Copy the virtual disks to the new folder. For more information, see Moving or Copying Virtual Disks in a VMware Environment (900).
9. Register the new virtual machine.
10. Add the virtual disk copies to the virtual machine copy.
11. Upgrade the virtual hardware if necessary.
12. Power on the virtual machine.
13. Test the new virtual machine.
14. Optionally, delete the original virtual machine files.

To move the VMDK faster you can use fastscp. its a freeware and specially designed for bulk copy VMs across VMware ESX environment.

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html