6.5

Table Of Contents
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Virtual machine disks must be in persistent mode or be raw device mappings (RDMs). For physical and
virtual compatibility mode RDMs, you can migrate the mapping le only. For virtual compatibility
mode RDMs, you can use the vSphere Web Client to convert to thick-provisioned or thin-provisioned
disks during migration as long as the destination is not an NFS datastore. You cannot use the svmotion
command to perform this conversion.
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The host on which the virtual machine is running must have a license that includes Storage vMotion.
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The host on which the virtual machine is running must have access to both the source and target
datastores.
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A particular host can be involved in up to four migrations with vMotion or Storage vMotion at one
time. See Limits on Simultaneous Migrations in the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation for
details.
If you use the vSphere Web Client for migration with svmotion, the system performs several compatibility
checks. These checks are not supported by the svmotion vCLI command.
Running svmotion in Interactive Mode
You can run svmotion in interactive mode by using the --interactive option. The command prompts you
for the information it needs to complete the storage migration.
In interactive mode, the svmotion command uses the following syntax.
svmotion <conn_options> --interactive
When you use --interactive, all other options are ignored.
I When responding to the prompts, use quotes around input strings with special characters.
Running svmotion in Noninteractive Mode
You can run svmotion in noninteractive mode if you do not use the --interactive option.
I When you run svmotion, --server must point to a vCenter Server system.
In noninteractive mode, the svmotion command uses the following syntax.
svmotion [standard vCLI options] --datacenter=<datacenter_name>
--vm <VM config datastore path>:<new datastore>
[--disks <virtual disk datastore path>:<new datastore>,
<virtual disk datastore path>:<new datastore>]
Square brackets indicate optional elements, not datastores.
The --vm option species the virtual machine and its destination. By default, all virtual disks are relocated to
the same datastore as the virtual machine. This option requires the current virtual machine conguration le
location. See “Determine the Path to the Virtual Machine Conguration File and Disk File,” on page 64.
The --disks option relocates individual virtual disks to dierent datastores. The --disks option requires the
current virtual disk datastore path as an option. See “Determine the Path to the Virtual Machine
Conguration File and Disk File,” on page 64.
Determine the Path to the Virtual Machine Configuration File and Disk File
To use the --vm option, you need the current virtual machine conguration le location.
Procedure
1 Run vmware-cmd -l to list all virtual machine conguration les (VMX les).
vmware-cmd -H <vc_server> -U <login_user> -P <login_password> -h <esx_host> -l
vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples
64 VMware, Inc.