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Table Of Contents
Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces
56 VMware, Inc.
Migrating Virtual Machines with svmotion
StoragevMotionmovesavirtualmachine’sconfigurationfile,and,optionally,itsdisks,whilethevirtual
machineisrunning.YoucanperformStoragevMotiontasksfromthevSphereWebClientorwiththe
svmotioncommand.
Youcanplacethevirtualmachineandallofitsdisksinasinglelocation,orchoose
separatelocationsforthe
virtualmachineconfigurationfileandeachvirtualdisk.Youcannotchangethevirtualmachine’sexecution
hostduringamigrationwithsvmotion.
Storage vMotion Uses
StoragevMotionhasseveralusesinadministeringyourvSphereenvironment.
UpgradeESXiwithoutvirtualmachinedowntimeinsituationswherevirtualmachinedisksmustbe
movedtosharedstoragetoallowmigrationwithvMotion.
Performstoragemaintenanceandreconfiguration.YoucanuseStoragevMotiontomovevirtual
machinesoffastoragedevicetoallowmaintenanceorreconfigurationofthestoragedevicewithout
virtualmachinedowntime.
Redistributestorageload.YoucanuseStoragevMotiontomanuallyredistributevirtualmachinesor
virtualdiskstodifferentstoragevolumestobalancecapacityorimproveperformance.
Storage vMotion Requirements and Limitations
YoucanmigratevirtualmachinediskswithStoragevMotionifthevirtualmachineanditshostmeetthe
followingresourceandconfigurationrequirements:
ForESXi5.0andlaterhosts,youcanmigratevirtualmachinesthathavesnapshots.Forearlierversionsof
ESXi,youcannotmigratevirtualmachinesthathavesnapshots.
Virtualmachinedisksmustbeinpersistentmodeorberawdevicemappings(RDMs).Forphysicaland
virtualcompatibilitymodeRDMs,youcanmigratethemappingfileonly.Forvirtualcompatibilitymode
RDMs,youcanusethevSphereWebClienttoconverttothickprovisionedorthinprovisioneddisks
duringmigration
aslongasthedestinationisnotanNFSdatastore.Youcannotusethesvmotion
commandtoperformthisconversion.
ThehostonwhichthevirtualmachineisrunningmusthavealicensethatincludesStoragevMotion.
Thehostonwhichthevirtualmachineisrunningmusthaveaccesstoboththesourceandtarget
datastores.
AparticularhostcanbeinvolvedinuptofourmigrationswithvMotionorStoragevMotionatonetime.
See“LimitsonSimultaneousMigrations”inthevCenterServerandHostManagementdocumentationfor
details.
IfyouusethevSphereWebClientformigrationwithsvmotion,thesystemperformsseveralcompatibility
checks.
ThesechecksarenotsupportedbythesvmotionvCLIcommand.
Running svmotion in Interactive Mode
Youcanrunsvmotionininteractivemodeusingthe--interactiveoption.Thecommandpromptsyoufor
theinformationitneedstocompletethestoragemigration.
svmotion <conn_options> --interactive
Whenyouuse--interactive,allotheroptionsareignored.
I
MPORTANTNoESXCLIcommandforStoragevMotionisavailable.
IMPORTANTWhenrespondingtotheprompts,usequotesaroundinputstringswithspecialcharacters.