I want to move a vm from one vsphere server to another because I'm out of disk space on the old server. I'm not sure how to do that. Server hosting client I want to move is an ESXi 5.5 standard. Machine to migrate to is ESXi 6.0'
What tool, command, etc. do I use?
Any datastores common to both hosts? Are the hosts managed by a vCenter Server or not?
No shared data stores. Both servers are available in a vcenter server.
>>> Both servers are available in a vcenter server.
If you are using at least ESXi 5.5 Update 2, and have a vSphere Essentials Plus license, you can live migrate VMs between hosts without shared storage (assuming compatible CPUs, and a vMotion network configured).
Other than this, the migration wizard should allow you to migrate powered off VMs.
André
Where can I find a step by step guide to migrate a powered off VM?
You can use cold migration to move a virtual machine and its associated disks from one datastore to another. The virtual machines are not required to be on shared storage.
Make sure that you are familiar with the requirements for cold migration. See Cold Migration.
Move the virtual machine to another host. |
Move the virtual machine’s configuration file and virtual disks. |
Move the virtual machine to another host and move its configuration file and virtual disks. |
Any compatibility problem appears in the Compatibility panel. Fix the problem, or select another host or cluster.
Possible targets include hosts and DRS clusters with any level of automation. If a cluster has no DRS enabled, select a specific host in the cluster rather than selecting the cluster.
If the virtual machine that you migrate has an NVDIMM device and uses PMem storage, the destination host or cluster must have available PMem resources. Otherwise, the compatibility check fails and you cannot proceed further with the migration.
If the virtual machine that you migrate does not have an NVDIMM device but it uses PMem storage, you must select a host or cluster with available PMem resources, so that all PMem hard disks remain stored on a PMem datastore. Otherwise, all the hard disks use the storage policy and datastore selected for the configuration files of the virtual machine.
Use the same format as the source virtual machine. |
Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation. Instead, it is zeroed out on demand on first write from the virtual machine. |
Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks. |
Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs more space later, it can expand to the maximum capacity allocated to it. |
Select a datastore from the list and click Next. |
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You can migrate a virtual machine network to another distributed switch in the same or to another data center or vCenter Server.
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vCenter Server moves the virtual machine to the new host or storage location.
Event messages appear in the Events tab. The data displayed on the Summary tab shows the status and state throughout the migration. If errors occur during migration, the virtual machines revert to their original states and locations.
1. I don't get an option to "Migrate" when I right-click on the powered off machine.
The Migrate option is only available from the vCenter Server interface, i.e. not while logged in to the ESXi host's GUI directly.
André