6.7

Table Of Contents
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 different hosts or datastores.
Cold Migration You can move a powered off or suspended virtual machine to a new host.
Optionally, you can relocate configuration and disk files for powered off 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 You can use vMotion or Storage vMotion to move a powered on virtual
machine to a different host and move its disks or folder to a different
datastore. You can move the virtual machine without any interruption in
availability. You can also move a virtual machine to a different host and to a
different storage location at the same time. vMotion is also called live
migration or hot migration.
Note 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 configuration file creates a new virtual machine. Cloning is not a
form of migration.
VMware, Inc.
120