VMWare ESXi Installation Transfer

[aer4a]

Good day to all,

Recently, our 5-year old IBM System x3100 M4 will shutdown unexpectedly after running for about 10 minutes my estimate. There is no error reported during boot if there's a hard disk failure or something.

Can I transfer the hard disks from this IBM System which have the VMWare ESXi installation to a typical computer with Intel processor?

Thank you,

Allan

[MikeStoica · Accepted solution]

What version of ESXi are you running? And why would you want to move the ESXi on a different sever? Most probably it will fail, since the current installation has the driver specifics for your current hardware.

[johncol]

VMWare ESXi installation to a typical computer with Intel processor?

Unlikely, as mentioned the software is installed with specific divers  - reinstall in this case, on a supported rig would be the best option

[aer4a]

Sorry forgot to say that its VMWare ESXi 6.5.0 (Build 4887370).

[aer4a]

What version of ESXi are you running?

VMWare ESXi 6.5.0 (Build 4887370) (This is free edition)

And why would you want to move the ESXi on a different sever?

I think the IBM System X 3100 M4 server is failing.

Most probably it will fail, since the current installation has the driver specifics for your current hardware.

Ok, I will no longer pursue this as this might damage the disks. Thanks for this information.

On a side note, I am still trying to export via a web client. Is it possible for the ovftool cli to be used for this edition?

[MikeStoica]

Well, one of the reasons why your system reboots is because your it's not on VMware HCL VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

[aer4a]

Well, one of the reasons why your system reboots is because your it's not on VMware HCL VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

I see IBM System x 3100 M5 on VMware HCL.

My server is IBM System x 3100 M4 which was not included in the list. Previous version was 5.5 and was running solid for years then I replaced it with 6.5 .

The VMware ESXi was installed on September 18, 2017. And there's no problem ever since from that date until Monday last week when it suddenly trigger Auto Power off and then turns itself off, or it will just restart. This happened just last week after I copied large files to one of the VMs. I deleted those files already and removed some VMs that might cause disk size issues.

[aer4a]

Anyway, last week, it triggers auto powering off of VMs, which means it triggers shutdown. But I did not issue the shutdown command.

Then today, it will just power off immediately for no reason, so I only power two VMs at the moment trying to avoid this problem.