6.0.1

Migrating Virtual Machines 13
You can move virtual machines from one host or storage location to another location using hot or cold
migration. For example, with vSphere vMotion you can move powered on virtual machines away from a
host to perform maintenance, to balance loads, to collocate virtual machines that communicate with each
other, to move virtual machines apart to minimize fault domain, to migrate to new server hardware, and so
on.
You can use cold or hot migration to move virtual machines to dierent hosts or datastores.
Cold Migration
You can move a powered o or suspended virtual machine to a new host.
Optionally, you can relocate conguration and disk les for powered o or
suspended virtual machines to new storage locations. You can also use cold
migration to move virtual machines from one data center to another. To
perform a cold migration, you can move virtual machines manually or set up
a scheduled task.
Hot Migration
Depending on the type of migration you are using, vMotion or Storage
vMotion, you can move a powered on virtual machine to a dierent host,
and move its disks or folder to a dierent datastore without any interruption
in the availability of the virtual machine. You can also move a virtual
machine to a dierent host and to a dierent storage location at the same
time. vMotion is also referred to as live migration or hot migration.
N Copying a virtual machine creates a new virtual machine. It is not a form of migration. Cloning a
virtual machine or copying its disks and conguration le creates a new virtual machine. Cloning is not a
form of migration.
VMware, Inc.
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