Specifications

n
“About Migration Compatibility Checks,” on page 124
n
“Migrate a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client,” on page 124
n
“Migrate a Powered-On Virtual Machine with vMotion in the vSphere Client,” on page 126
n
“Migrate a Virtual Machine with Storage vMotion in the vSphere Client,” on page 127
n
“Migrate a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 129
n
“Migrate a Powered-On Virtual Machine with vMotion in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 130
n
“Migrate a Virtual Machine with Storage vMotion in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 131
n
“Storage vMotion Command-Line Syntax,” on page 132
n
“Limits on Simultaneous Migrations,” on page 134
Cold Migration
Cold migration is the migration of a powered-off virtual machine. With cold migration, you have the option
of moving the associated disks from one datastore to another. The virtual machines are not required to be on
shared storage.
The virtual machine you want to migrate must be powered off prior to beginning the cold migration process.
If a virtual machine is configured to have a 64-bit guest operating system, vCenter Server generates a warning
if you try to migrate it to a host that does not support 64-it operating systems. Otherwise, CPU compatibility
checks do not apply when you migrate a virtual machine with cold migration.
A cold migration consists of the following tasks:
1 If the option to move to a different datastore was chosen, the configuration files, including the NVRAM
file (BIOS settings), and log files are moved from the source host to the destination host’s associated storage
area. If you chose to move the virtual machine's disks, these are also moved.
2 The virtual machine is registered with the new host.
3 After the migration is completed, the old version of the virtual machine is deleted from the source host if
the option to move to a different datastore was chosen.
Migrating a Suspended Virtual Machine
When migrating a suspended virtual machine, you also have the option of moving the associated disks from
one datastore to another. The virtual machines are not required to be on shared storage.
When you migrate a suspended virtual machine, the new host for the virtual machine must meet CPU
compatibility requirements, because the virtual machine must be able to resume executing instructions on the
new host.
Migration of a suspended virtual machine consists of the following steps:
1 The configuration files, including the NVRAM file (BIOS settings), log files, and the suspend file as well
as the disks of the virtual machine are moved from the source host to the destination host’s associated
storage area.
2 The virtual machine is registered with the new host.
3 After the migration is completed, the old version of the virtual machine is deleted from the source host.
vCenter Server and Host Management
112 VMware, Inc.