vmotion shows "unable to access file" when trying to migrate a running VM using shared LUN

[manuaragones]

Running 3 nodes on ESX 3.5 vmotion is showing "unable to access file" .... vmdk when attempting to migrate from ESX1 to ESX3 on a running VM. Both ESX servers share a common LUN. I'm trying to move from the local storage on ESX1 to the LUN storage on ESX2. I'm able to do it if the VM is off, but i get the error when the VM is on.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

you can't do a vmotion off local storage to shared. You will have to shutdown the VM and do a cold migration, or you can do it live with sVMotion

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vip-svmotion/

How to:

http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/vmotion-drs-high-availabil...

[jayolsen]

I don't think you will be able to vmotion from local storage to your shared. You want to do a svmotion for the storage piece to move it to the LUn while running.

After the storage is moved to the shared LUN then you would be able to vmotions between hosts.