Just wondering what the easiest way to migrate an ESX server with site services from one building to another with no downtime. (buildings connected by fiber)
We have two ESX servers in a cluster. I'm guessing I can vmotion VMs off of one ESX server, then physically carry it over to the new site and bring it up, then VMotion the others over? The VMs are 40gigs minimum. At what point would this not make sense and at what bandwidth? They will be connected via Fiber to 1gb switches, but the buildings are still a mile apart I think.
Please assist.
Thanks EE
Yes, for a sVMotion...(migrating VM to a different datastore), the process could indeed take a while. And, depending on the VM size, and WAN bandwidth, that sounds about right (4-12hrs). What happens during a sVMotion is a snap is taken of the VM; the orig VM and it's files are then transferred to the new datastore; any changes made to the VM will be added to the snap file; upon completion of the transfer of files, the data in the snap will then be written to the orig VM vmdk and the snap deleted. So, that process could take a while to complete.
~coolsport00