How do I migrate vcenter to another host?

do you have ESX servers at the new location?

no they are just window servers. The host being 2008 and the other 2 are 2003

if the WAN was fast enough between the two datacentres, you could complete a storage vmotion between the two, if you had the required versions of vSphere.

Otherwise I think you'll have to Backup and Restore:-

Veeam Backup and Replication, Vizioncore vRanger Pro, phd virtual esxpress are all available as trials which you could use to do the job, you need the licensed versions of ESX to do this.

Veeam Backup is easiest to install and setup, and get replica copies on another platform or target, but depends on how fast you link between DCs is.

are these the Virtual Machines or the Hosts?

ah, so you are using VMware Server on 2008? with two VMs?

and can you get scheduled downtime to shutdown and copy the VMs to the new IDCS?

migrating from V to P is not something that is easy or efficient.  i would not recommend doing that.  if you  brought up the physical servers in your environment, joined them to the domain and migrated roles, and transferred files that way, you would be far more successful, and much more stable.  

DC-1 has 100MB the IDCS have 1.5MB. The VM's are all 2003. The vCenter 4.1 and vSphere Ent Plus host is running on a Dell PE 850

Not changeing the infrastructure. The IDCS will be used for only a month. The equipment from DC-1 will be shipped to the DC-2 and once thats complete there will a final migration to DC-2.

okay, so you want to move these 2003 Virtual Machines to Physical Machines in Datacentre ICDS?

have I got this correct?

Below is a general breakout of the Data Centers

DC-1
M100e Blade Chassis
6 M600 Blade servers 24GB ram dual 4 dual core cpu
Dell PowerEdge 2950 (file server)
*****************************************************************************
Interim Data Center Servers
PE2850      8GB RAM          2TB HD      file server
PE2650      4GB RAM  300GB HD      vCenter/vSphere
PE2650      3GB RAM  300GB HD            
******************************************************************************
DC-2
M100e Blade Chassis
6 M600 Blade servers 24GB ram dual 4 dual core cpu
Dell PowerEdge 2950 fileserver

I definately dont want to move to physical servers

What i want to do is to
* Install the vCenter/vsphere to the IDCS
*Then across the wan migrate (should this be done by snapshotting then downloading the snapshot or vMotion accross the wan?)

Last week I cloned 7 VM's downloaded then to a VMWARE server 2.0 (took 3 days) using the standalone client. This seems to have worked but I am hesitant to rely on it for production.

ok im confused, these servers, the IDCS, i thought they were running Win2K8 to begin with.  are they running ESX or is it possible to load ESX on these?  the only reason you would have to migrate to physical servers is if you cannot get ESX installed to the IDCS.  and you cannot 'forklift' your blades and chassis to the interim data center.  

Will ESX or ESXi necessary for vWare?

Andyk167:
When you say forklift what do you mean exactly. When the chassis fully loaded its about.... what 400 lbs but after removing blades and other components the chassis is barely 125 lbs.
The IDCS:
2850 2008 enterprise
2650 2003 enterprise
2650 2003 stnd

Snapshotting is not a backup.

1.Install vSphere vCenter at ICDS.
2.Install vSphere ESX at ICDS.

vMotion can only be used to migrate machines between hosts and connected storage to both hosts.

I don't think storage vmotion is going to be an option for you, which allows you to move machines between storage platforms, the link is too slow.

So, you'll need to backup and restore using backup and restore software, what backup and restore software are you using now, or use VMware Convertor to "convert" existing servers to new location.

this is going to be slow over WAN links.

yes, you'll need the same ESX version as in DC1.

what version of VMware have you got in DC1?

by forklift i mean move the blades and chassis to the interim data center and plug in from there.  if you cannot do that, and you cannot load esx on the IDCS then you will not have much of a choice but to convert to physical servers, then migrate P to V at the new center.  unless there is another way to boot the VM's off of windows servers, and i dont think there is, other than the VMware Player, but you cannot run a network off of that.

the IDCS are only going to be used during the shipment of the euqipment from DC-1 to DC-2. I have not yet loaded the ESX or ESXi to the IDCS as of yet.
hanccocka:
But if Im understanding you correctly as long as I have
Both the DC-1 and IDCS conected
Same version of vCenter Server 4.1 Standard/vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus on DC-1 & IDCS
Then a storage vmotion between the two is possible. Depending on WAN speed between DC-1 & IDCS

Okay, you could use the free version of ESXi on all your Dell Poweredge Servers at ICDS, boot from USB stick. (although I cannot find these servers on the HCL for ESXi embedded on USB), but ESXi installable is an option.

This provides you with a very quick VMware ESX deployment on all three servers at ICDS.

you just need to get the VMs, restored or converted to the datastores on these servers.

vCenter Server 4.1 Standard &  vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus

yes, that is correct;

test a storage vmotion and see what happens.

cold and warm. (storage vmotion).

otherwise, backup and restore.

try Veeam Backup and Restore, Replication.

you'll find out very quickly if storage vmotion is not going to work.

But, first I would Clone an existing production machine, to a test migration machine and then storage vmotion that one (just in case)

Executive backup I believe. Is there a more compentant backup and restore software that you would suggest?

Veeam Backup and Replication, Vizioncore vRanger Pro, phd virtual esxpress are all available as trials which you could use to do the job, you need the licensed versions of ESX to do this.

Veeam Backup is easiest to install and setup, and get replica copies on another platform or target, but depends on how fast you link between DCs is.

or VMware Convertor.

for what you need to do Veeam!

and in order for veeam back to produce the "WANTED" results ESX not ESXi willbe required?

cloning one now for the test. let you all know soon

either ESX or ESXi

but, for consistentancy, I would use the same host software, that the VMs are currently hosted on!

But also remember, that ESX will eventually be phased out in favour of ESXi (no service console), so maybe time to make that move.

as for the VMs, the virtual machine hardware is the same, that's the good thing about virtualisation!

I would like to add the vSphere v4.1 is the last version to ship both ESX and ESXi versions.

The next major version of vSphere would only ship ESXi which has been rebranded as VMware vSphere Hypervisor.

ok so cloning and then trying to vcenter stand alone accross the WAN is pure torture. Im downloading another copy of VMware vSphere plus the esxi. I do believe its the right version (see graphic).  
vmware.bmp

ESXi 4.1 can only be managed using vSphere 4.1 which is ONLY 64 bit.

the images you are showing me here is ESX 4.0 and vSphere vCenter 4.0.0.

I think you'll need to to backup and restore, if your WAN is not up to it.

Is it possible to create local backups in the DC1, and then collect them by hand, and restore at ICDS.

You don't really need to bother with vSphere Center to manage a single ESX host, just download the client and connect to the single Server. If its only for a short time.

Try ESXi 4.1 embeddeed. Install in USB stick, put in server, very quick to deploy.

Sirius7,

You have the answers you need.

Your bandwidth is too slow for use across the WAN (there is no doubt), so Installing ESXi in the Interim DC and then follow VMware Guys recommends.

What you are proposing should be simple.  Another solution depending upon the size of the VMs would be to copy all the VMDKs off to a removable LaCie drive (or someother portable storage) and ship it over.

This would reproduce your existing VM environment rapidly to which you could just copy back in the IDC and then turn them on tweak the networks and you are up in no time.

Barring this, then VEEAM backup/recovery options will work effectively, however the process will continue to the next DC.  If you go with portable storage you can reproduce the results with the added benefit of potentially retaining the original VMDKs for a true backup / recovery option in time.

Let us know how you fare,
-Virt

IF you are short on storage space for making this migration happen, there is a way to backup up your VMs in a deduplicated format to a windows share that can be a removable disk.  Not sure what VMware licensing you currently have, but if you have Vthe Mware essentials plus kit or any VMware licensing model higher than Standard (e.g. advanced, enterprise, or enterprise plus) you can install the VMware data recovery appliance, super easy to implement, and then back up your VMs to a windows share in a deduplicated fashion.  Once backed up, take the removable disk to the 2nd site, mount it to a windows server in a share, then once ESX is built at the 2nd site you can install a new data recovery appliance (VDR) and mount the windows share and recover all of your VMs.  It works, I;ve done it.  Soon as you build the new VDR appliance and connect it to the share you get a message asking if you want to inheret the current configuration of the datastore, say yes and reboot, then you will be able to recover all of the deduped VMs.  I used this method to backup and recover 10 VMs - these VMs by themself totaled 192GB, but with VDR's dedupe they only consumed like 25GB, I was amazed at the efficiency.  

it took all night but I downloaded the vm's (280GB) I cloned back in november. I did this by way of vcenter converter/standalone. The problem Im concerned with now is how old the data is and syncing it. Im now configuring the IDCS now. give update in 2 hours.

VMware Convertor is not really a way of MIgration, moving or copying, because you are converting the machines, the answer is in the software. You should really backup and restore.

Well only you will know, how old the virtual machines are, but they must be a few months old, and personally I wouldn't use them.

Try Veeam Backup and Replication, and Replicate machine to new DC, if bandwidth permits, or get Veeam to Backup locally at DC1, and then copy current VMs overnight to ICDS.

if you require help in setting up Veeam, just shout....

it's worth a shot.

if these are File Servers, you can use Robocopy to mirror, the incrementals

What roles, do the servers have? (please don't tell me Domain Controllers!)

no they are not DC's. Im no virgin to Virtualization, but yes lack alot of product knowledge with little to no time to become the "Golden 1".

okay so, robocopy to sync them up maybe!

ok sorry everyone been home sick. everything was gpoing as planned but I keep getting "Unable to obtain hardware informationfor the selected machine

"Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine"

VMware Convertor?

when does this error appear?

Sirius7 - what action are you performing that is generating this error?  Are you trying to migrate a VM using converter?  If yes, try right clicking the VM from within vCenter, select remove from inventory, then navigate to the datastore the VM resides in and right click its .vmx file and select add to inventory.  This should resolve this issue.  Also, converter only migrates VMs that are powered down, make sure before you attempt to convert \ migrate the VM is powered off.

following BestWays Guide

For the conversion steps, read BestWays Guide


https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/VMWare/A_3639-VMware-vConverter-P2V-for-Windows-Servers.html

yeah its vmware converter. Ii worked fine for the first server but then after completing that one no more  I start converter click convert machine source type = vmware infrastructure virtual machine
I enter all of the information as I had done before after clicking next I just get the unable to obtain eror

This happened to me before, do what I suggest above, remove the VM from the inventory and then re-register it by navigating the datastore where its .vmx file resides and right click it and select add to inventory.  You can do this from within vCenter or ESX.  When you connect to the VM with converter are you connecting to vCenter or ESX?  Which ever is the answer is the server you should log into and perfrom the action.  

Ever have to smack something to get it to work?  This action is similar to that.  Be removing and re-adding it to the inventory you are refreshing the config file with the ESX host and vCenter, it should resolve the issue.  

Logged into the vcenter via vsphere removed from inventory browsed to datastore to add back into data store. started vmconverter. same error as before.

OK, try the activity logged in directly to the ESX server.  Then when you connect to the VM from within VMware standalone converter, make sure you connect to hte ESX host and not vCenter.  

Hang on, my bad, performing a re-registration may not be enough.  You will need to go one step further. Follow these steps:

1) power down the VM
2) Remove VM from inventory
3) create a new VM using wizard, only select custom and select the existing disks of your current VM and add them to this new VM.  Give the VM the same resource allocations and vNIC adaptors, etc.  
4) Power new VM up and make sure all is good.
5) power new VM down and connect to it via converter.  

This should take care of the issue, sorry, but upon further thought I realized that this is what I had to do to resolve the issue.  

In essence you are creating a new VM with the same disks, but in the process you are also creating a new .vmx file as well as a new registration.  If this doesn't work I'll buy you a case of beer.  

Im familiar with vcenter from sphere client aspect.. how do I log into the esx server? not familiar with unix either or its cl...........After selecting custom i dint see the option for selecting existing disks

The VMDKs must exist on the VMFS datastore.

There would be an option to add an existing virtual disk/s to the new VM creation wizard.

Locate the VMDKs and map them to the VMX file.

Just use the vcenter client and instead of using the vcenter server ip address, use the actual esx server ip address, and login as root with the root password.

But personally I would not recommend this course of action in migration using vmware convector, unless as a last resort. It's a conversion.

Converter is slow for sure, but reliable.  It is best to use converter to migrate VMs when you need to resize a disk, you have the options to do that within converter.  OR if you are migrating to another VMware platform, like ESX to workstation or VMWare server.  Otherwise, if you can tolerate the slow slow speed, it is a viable choice.  I have outlined other migration choices above.  

You can log directly into ESX with the vSPhere client you use to access vCenter.  the user will be root unless you have specifically created an ADMIN user on the ESX server.  If you have, then log in to ESX with this user.  But there is no security risk that I know of using the vSPhere client and logging in to ESX as root.

ok got the converter to work from the vcenter connecting to the server standalone. but Im stuck on the data copy type

OK, this is where you have the choice to copy the VM as is and maintain the current config, or modify the volumes to expand or shrink them.  In most cases a drive in a windows guest os is also an individual virtual disk file (vmdk), but depending on how you built windows you could have 1 virtual disk and then have the guest OS broken up into many volumes (C, D, etc).   This is your opportunity to make changes, and the best change to make is to shrink your system disk if it is too big..  So many people deploy servers with large system disks, this isn't a great idea, a big waste of disk space.  If you need to shrink it select the option to "select volumes to copy" and carefully look through the interface to see what you can do, you can modify the volume sizes to what ever size you want.  Or, accpet the default to "copy all disks and maintain layout"  this will copy your VM as is without any changes.  

These guys are top shelf! Couldnt have done it without them!