ESX 2.53 to 3.01 local disk and no VC

[dimsys]

Hi folks,

Sorry if this topic has been beaten to death, but a lot of the replies I have seen include using tools like VC or have SAN arrays, etc.

I have a very basic setup, just a small handful of VMs on a 2.53 server that I would like to move to a new 3.01 server. Both servers use local disk.

I don't mind downtime for migrating each VM. What is the cleanest and most simple way to do this cold migration to get the VMs off 2.53 and safely up and running on the 3.01 box?

Thanks in advance for your comments and feedback.

[conyards]

I would have a look at utilising VMware Converter or Platspin power convert to manage what is in essence a V2V operation.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Simon

[dimsys]

I was seeking a process I could perform with native commands or tools.

Thank you for the feedback on the add-on products.

[dimsys]

Greetings all,

First, I apologize for the post in this forum, should have posted it in the Installation and Upgrade section. My bad.

Some additional searching and I have uncovered this:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=527323&#527323

After reading it, the suggested method is:

\--snip--

Something like:

1/ SCP the VMDK you want to your ESX3 server.

2/ CP the VMDK from your ESXT3 partition to a VMFS partition with --sparse=never switch.

3/ Use vmkfstools -i to 'clone' the VMDK to another VMDK on the SAN, so that the space is allocated properly to give optimal performance.

4/ Delete the VMDK you CP'd from the ext3 partition.

5/ Create a new VM, select custom, and choose to use an existing disk file. Point this at your 'cloned' VMDK file.

\--end--

Is this the best approach?

Again, I have local disk on both my 2.53 and 3.01 boxes. If anyone knows the best approach, I don't care if we have some downtime during the copy, etc. I just want to know the best way to migrate these VMs from 2.53 to 3.01 safely.

I don't want to be the 'there have been so many posts on this it hurts' guy but I have not been able to find one that is totally clear for cold migration 2.53 to 3.01 with local disk only.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[dimsys]

Sorry for the obnoxious bump, but any feedback here would be appreciated. Has to be some low hanging points for someone with this knowledge Thanks all.

[patk]

This seems like it might be relevant:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=600459&#600459

Also I am investigating whether or not we need to use the "[b]cp sparse=never[/b]" switch if only moving disks between VMFS partitions. I'll be doing a test shorty and will post results.

[sbeaver · Accepted solution]

For what it is worth I recommend only using vmkfstools to migrate or move vmdk file and do not use CP because of the locks that get applied