Transfering of VM from one ESX Server to another ESX Server

[Tommy3kGT]

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to transfer a VM from one of my ES Server to another ESX Server I just setup. I do not have a SAN between them. And looking to transfer them over the net work.

[Mike_Fink]

Tommy,

There are a ton of ways to do this. I would suggest using FTP or SCP to move it between the servers.

Turn off the VM.

Telnet to the host machine with the VM to be transferred.

FTP the .VMDK files and VMX files (everything in the directory) to the other server.

Once the FTP job is finished, register the VM through the VI client.

[Tommy3kGT]

Mike,

Thats what I had in mind. Do you know where I can find the procedures to do the FTP Transfer, meaning the commands to do it?

[oreeh]

FYI: there's no telnet daemon or ftp server available in ESX3/VI3.

[Tommy3kGT]

I'm still using version 2.5, So that FTP command should work?

[oreeh]

then FTP should work

[mattpound]

I think you have to lower the default security on 2.5 to allow FTP'ing between servers.

Personally I would look to using the scp command to copy the files.

Message was edited by:

mattpound

[oreeh]

yes

But I'd rather do it the followig anyway:

\- export the VMDK using vmkfstools, creating 2GB chunks (most FTP, SCP, ... clients can't handle large files)

\- copy the exported VMDK and other files to the other ESX using SCP

\- import the VMDK and register the VM

[Jeff_Shaw]

Use FastSCP, it's 6 times faster than scp.

Download:

http://veeam.com/download.asp?step=2&license_type=7

If you need more info about FastSCP, you can get it here: http://www.vmweekly.com/news/20070302/1/

Jeff

[Mayur_Patel]

Wouldn't using FastSCP to copy between ESX hosts take longer?? I mean Fast SCP has to pull the data over the network to your PC, then send it to the target Host.

Anyway, I like to use scp. Although you can export the vmdk files to smaller chunks, from what I understand, the scp client in ESX has been modified to handle large files. I beleive the FTP lient has also.

Mayur

[christiansen]

We do it more comfortable with esxReplicator from www.vizioncore.com because

it's very easy to handle jobs like this. we bought this while we are not very familiar with linux os. you can schedule rep jobs and activate a notification by email if the job went wrong. it's enough - and not very expensive ...

regards

mark

[timw18]

We use Vmware converter to do this.

[Jeff_Shaw]

Hi Mayur,

The fact is that FastSCP copies files and vms directly from one esx to another. That's what makes it so fast. You can try it out yourself and see how much time it saves.

Jeff

[ITThies]

To copy between esx hosts use the scp command.

Before you can do that, you have to open the sshClient Service in the Service Console.

(esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient)

To copy a file use scp like that:

scp

[Jeff_Shaw]

As I've already said, scp is much slower than FastSCP. Btw, FastSCP doesn't require any additional actions - you just go and use it

[Mayur_Patel]

Jeff:

I stand corrected. You are correct. It seems to send the copy instructions to the ESX Hosts and then the copy happens between the 2 ESX hosts.

Mayur

[hicksnestle]

esxReplicator does not support linux. esxReplicator needs root to run. esxReplicator cannot replicate more than 4 VM's at a time. Try it! Network hog.

[jmattox]

esxReplicator for Vi3, does support Linux VM's and does not need root over SSH to replicate.

[hicksnestle]

That FastSCP works like a charm. I have evaluated just about everything. This is the best and very simple. BTW, the throughput and traffic for ESXReplicater is horrific. Nearly crashed my network. Don't try it with more than 2 VM's at a time.

Thanks for the tips!

[kix1979]

So basically you are saying that esxReplicator was pushing close to 111MB/sec and crashing your network? Can you be a little more specific with these claims?