Specifications

VMware, Inc. 233
Chapter 15 Migrating Virtual Machines
Migration
Thevirtualmachineyouwanttomigratemustbepoweredofforsuspendedpriorto
beginningthemigrationprocess.Withamigration,youalsohavetheoptionofmoving
theassociateddisksfromonedatastoretoanother.(Tomovethedisksofapowered‐on
virtualmachinefromonedatastoreto
another,useStorageVMotion.)Amigration
consistsofthefollowingsteps:
1Theconfigurationfiles,includingtheNVRAMfile(BIOSsettings),logfiles,and
thesuspendfileforsuspendedvirtualmachinesaswellasthedisksofthevirtual
machinearemovedfromthesourcehosttothedestinationhost’sassociated
storage
area.
2Thevirtualmachineisregisteredwiththenewhost.
3Afterthemigrationiscompleted,theoldversionofthevirtualmachineisdeleted
fromthesourcehost.
Iferrorsoccurduringmigration,thevirtualmachinesreverttotheiroriginalstatesand
locations.
Youcanmovevirtualmachinesmanuallyorsetup
ascheduledtasktoperformthe
migration.See“ManagingTasks,Events,andAlarms”onpage 297forinformationon
schedulingtasks.
Migration with VMotion
VMotionallowsworkingprocessestocontinuethroughoutamigrationwithVMotion.
Theentirestateofthevirtualmachineaswellasitsconfigurationfile,ifnecessary,are
movedtothenewhostevenwhilethedatastorageremainsinthesamelocationonthe
SAN.Theassociatedvirtualdiskremainsin
thesamelocationontheSANstoragethat
issharedbetweenthetwohosts.Aftertheconfigurationfileismigratedtothealternate
host,thevirtualmachinerunsonthenewhost.
Thestateinformationincludesthecurrentmemorycontentandalltheinformationthat
definesandidentifiesthevirtualmachine.
Thememorycontentincludestransaction
dataandwhateverbitsoftheoperatingsystemandapplicationsareinthememory.The
definingandidentificationinformationstoredinthestateincludesallthedatathat
mapstothevirtualmachinehardwareelements,suchasBIOS,devices,CPU,MAC
addressesfortheEthernet
cards,chipsetstates,registers,andsoforth.