Cross vCenter vMotion

[AaronGirardArva]

Hi,

a few weeks ago we installed a new ESXi environment and everything is ready. After some adjustments on the firewall we can now migrate switched off VMs from the old construct to the new one. But if we try to migrate running VMs we get error messages. At the source vCenter the bar goes up to 45% and then breaks down. In the target vCenter, it stays at zero %. The error is:

"The destination host did not receive data from the source host on the vMotion network"

vmkping from the target host to the vMotion IP of the source host is missing, so I first suspected a firewall/network problem. But if I put a normal Windows computer into the new vMotion network (same port group etc.) it can be pinged.

The construct is as follows:

-separated storage

-dvSwitch source and target 6.0 because of compatibility

-settings on the dvSwitch are identical.

-old vCenter 6.5

-old ESXi mixed from 5.5 - 6.5 via different vCenter 6.5 Cluster

-new vCenter 6.7

-new ESXi 6.7

-new management network, old management network, new vMotion network and old vMotion network are all different VLANs.

->Both management networks can radio into both vMotion networks and among each other.

->the vMotion networks can see each other

If you need more information, I'll be happy to deliver it.

Many thanks and greetings

Aaron

[sk84]

Can you confirm that all of the follow requirements are met?

• The source and destination vCenter Server instances and ESXi hosts must be running version 6.0 or later.
• The cross vCenter Server and long distance vMotion features require an Enterprise Plus license. For more information, see Compare vSphere Editions.
• When using the vSphere Web Client, both vCenter Server instances must be in Enhanced Linked Mode and must be in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain so that the source vCenter Server can authenticate to the destination vCenter Server.
• Both vCenter Server instances must be time-synchronized with each other for correct vCenter Single Sign-On token verification.
• For migration of compute resources only, both vCenter Server instances must be connected to the shared virtual machine storage.

VMware Knowledge Base

[AaronGirardArva]

Thank you for your response,

- source is running on 6.5 in our test scenario. Destination 6.7
- Enterprise Plus License is activated
- both vCenters are in the same SSO Domain and we tried the migration with the cross vcenter migration utility from vmware and via powercli
- both vCenters are using the same timeserver but i will check if they are synchronized
- source and destination are using different storage resources

[sk84 · Accepted solution]

Okay. So, the basic requirements should be fine.

But:

new management network, old management network, new vMotion network and old vMotion network are all different VLANs.

If the source and destination vMotion network are different, you need to enable the vMotion TCP/IP Stack and must not use the default TCP/IP Stack.

See:

To have the vMotion traffic routed across IP subnets, enable the vMotion TCP/IP stack on the host. See Place vMotion Traffic on the vMotion TCP/IP Stack of an ESXi Host.

vSphere vMotion Networking Requirements

is it configured that way?

[AaronGirardArva]

Thank you!
all hosts used the default gw of the management network for vmotion.
it its working for me now