Help on the best way to move guests from vCenter to a standalone Host

[bghanson]

I have rewritten this question about the best method to move guests from a vCenter cluster to a standalone VM. I have four (4) guests I need to move off my vCenter cluster to a standalone VM host.  My system is configured as follows: my vCenter consists of three (3) host vm1, vm2, & vm3 all running ESXi 5.5 Enterprise and the standalone is vm4 running ESXi 5.1 (not licensed for vMotion). The vCenter, vm1, vm2, & vm3 use SAN storage for the Data Stores, and vm4 uses local storage only. The four (4) guests have provisioned storage of 27 GB, 44 GB, 44 GB, & 590 GB. I was going to remove vm3 from the vCenter and add vm4 then vMotion the guest to vm4 and local storage.  But since vm4 is not licensed for vMotion I need a new strategy.  I am looking for options and advice.  I have added the SAN DataStore Volume to vm4 that has the associated VMDKs. I thought of power them off then coping the guest folders from the SAN to a external hard drive then coping them from the external hard drive to the local storage on vm4. I am concerned about the time to copy the 590 GB folder twice as these are production guests. The other (preferred) option I thought of is as follows.  I have created the guests on vm4 with the use existing disk option, no VMDK file created.  If I power them down and copy the VMDK files to the local storage then point to those copied VMDK files and power on, will everything work?  Or could I just attach the VMDK files while still on the SAN and then power up and try to vmotion the data store to the local drive?  Anyone have an easier or better option? Thanks in advance

[crawfordm]

You could try using VMware converter to move the guests from one host to the other.

The more manual way would be to power down the guests and then copy the folders to the san and then copy then folders to the local drive on vm4.  Then just import the guest to inventory once they are copied over.

[bghanson]

The 4 VM guest I want to move are all ready on the SAN volume I have attached to both the vCenter cluster and the stand alone server.

[crawfordm]

Remove it from the vCenter inventory, then move the folder from the SAN to the local drive on the stand alone server.  Then register the VM with the stand alone server.

[bghanson]

Thanks Will try this week end or next. Soon as I can schedule a Maint. Window.

[taylorb]

crawfordm's idea will work.   Just make sure you "Remove" and not "Delete".  

You could also add  vm4 into vcenter, do an offline migration (same as a vmotion, but with VM powered off) and then remove VM4 from vcenter once everything is migrated.  Offline migration doesn't need a vmotion license.    You'd have to migrate the VM (change host) and then do another "change datastore" migration to get it to the local disk.  THen you could remove the host from inventory and power on all the VMs.  

Personally, though, if these are production servers.  I'd be hitting up management for a vmotion and vcenter license for that last host.