Moving VMs to a new virtual center.

[Vitaliy S.]

You need to remove the existing vCenter Server connection and re-create your backup jobs for existing VMs. If you want to continue running incremental runs, then contact our support team to adjust moref IDs of the VMs. For more info, please review this topic.

[Peejay62]

I understand the method of fixing the id's in the veeam db. I've got 50+ jobs that use folder selection to perform backup. We already have the scenario in place that completely recreates the folder structure/content of our current Vcenter in our new vcenter (it's is going to be 1:1). As I see it the folders have an unique id too, so this also has to be "fixed" in the Veeam DB? I will test soon If I get problems with the jobs regarding the folders,I am already asking now if anybody has experienced this and if so, any comments?
In short, What I am trying to achieve is to have my jobs, once switched to a new vcenter, continue running as usual... I can imagine a recalculate in the job but hopefully no full backups and broken chains. Full backups /copy backups will definitely kill me as this will pass 50TB (times 2 for copies) processing for sure..

thanks, Peter

[Vitaliy S.]

As I see it the folders have an unique id too, so this also has to be "fixed" in the Veeam DB? I will test soon If I get problems with the jobs regarding the folders,I am already asking now if anybody has experienced this and if so, any comments?

Yes, all IDs have to be re-mapped. The way you organize backup job shouldn't matter, VM ID change will be required to match ID in the virtual infrastructure and ID stored in the backup file. If you don't do this, active full backup will be performed for these VMs.

[lars@norstat.no]

Where can we find the support tool Gostov promised with V8 ?

[veremin]

Within existing support ticket.

[Peejay62]

Well, i created a ticket today. (01209076) I will update on results.

[RRUEEDI]

Hello all

I am very interested in a working way to migrate in a new vCenter-installation without performing full backups of the VMs.
So, if there is a solution or a helpfull guide from veeam-support, please post it!

Thanks in advance!

Remo

[foggy]

Remo, please contact support directly to be guided through the entire process. Thanks.

[lando_uk]

Hi,

If I do a side-by-side vcsa 5.5 to 6.0 upgrade, like described here: http://www.vladan.fr/how-to-upgrade-fro ... 5-5-to-6-0 , Will my MoRef ID's be preserved?

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

That's a good question I've read through this blog post and didn't see any mentioning of what configuration data is pulled from the old appliance, so assuming that historical performance data is also preserved/transferred, then it should be fine.

[foggy]

According to our QC, the entire vCenter database will be copied in this case, so IDs should be preserved.

[lando_uk]

Can you possibly find out for me please? As I need a definite answer before planning the change.

edit: answered, thanks

cheers

[Peejay62]

Well, i created a ticket today. (01209076) I will update on results.

Well, I received the "migration"tool from Veeam support. I did some extensive testing moving vm's / jobs around from one dc to another.Works straightforward and flawless. Backups continue to be Incremental once VM's are moved.
I am confident that when I initiate the move to the new VC everything will work just fine.
Thanks Veeam support for this one.

Peter

[readie]

Hi, Hope I might get some quick help on this one (before tonight's replication job starts!).
In order to move some equipment, we unmounted our replica Datastore, but before it allowed us to do that, we had to remove all VMs from Inventory, and then add them back into inventory after moving the (physical) datastore and mounting it.
Of course (though I didn't think in advance) this means that they have come back into VCentre, but with new VM IDs . . . and I've just tried a 'restore windows files' to see whether all is OK, and it reports 'cannot find that VM ID' (or similar).
Anyway I can match the new VM ID with the existing replica VMs? I'm trying to prevent a whole new FULL REPLICA (10TB+) tonight.
thanks in advance for any help.

[foggy]

Bob, though you're not moving to a new vCenter Server, the prerequisites are the same (VM ID's changed) as well as consequences. You can ask support for assistance, see above. Thanks.

[readie]

Thanks - have done that and already got a response from Support. Will keep you posted tomorrow.

[readie]

Great - got it back working, though taking a very long time 'Discovering replica VM' and then 'Calculating digests for HDs'. At least it won't then be copying the full replica. Thanks to support for prompt help (as always).

[masonit]

Hi

When will this feature be integrated in the product? Use case is more than moving from one vcenter to another.
Example: If you have issues with one VM that you troubleshoot. Meanwhile you start a restore of the VM to a "new" VM as plan B. You are not able to fix original VM and you need to start using restored VM. Instead of backup entire "new" VM and store unneccesary backup data. You should be able to edit backup job for orignal VM. Right click on VM and say, you are now this VM.. (and with powershell.. ) I know this can be done in db but I would prefer a more integrated way. This has huge impact on storage utilization. Especially when backup retention is years..

\Masonit

[Gostev]

When will this feature be integrated in the product?

Hi. Probably not sooner than this operation somehow becomes a necessity for every Veeam user to perform at least once a month, thus impacting our support load. But since this one is "once in a blue moon" type of need, our existing support tool will do the job just fine for now - while allowing us to focus on building features which will be useful to our users on the daily basis. It's all about priorities and value to the product!

By the way, I also have another idea on how we could potentially solves this issue. Still need to verify if it is plausible, but I'd much rather implement this than keep enhancing manual mapping. I just don't like the word "manual", because it is a very bad word in environments beyond a few dozens of VMs.

[masonit]

For sure we have different perspective. I can just say what I want as a costumer..

As you say this is not a daily task but the impact is big when we are talking about 4 TB VMs. Just be able to do it manual or with ps would be a good start.

\Masonit

[greb]

Hi,

Yesterday your support helped me to migrate my vm id with the script ... but its a pity to have to modify/edit all our jobs again ....

[flesz]

I am planning to move the hosts from vcenter 5.1 to 6.0 over the weekend.
I tried upgrading the vcenter, but there is a problem with the certificate and vmware support advised it is better to provision new vcenter 6.0 and add hosts to it.
Thinking about it now, I realised that after the migration there might be a problem with Veeam backups (we use Veeam 8.0).

How do I go about deleting old vcenter and reading new one, keeping the backup jobs in place?
Will VM IDs change ? That would be a big problem as currently there is not much space left on the backup server and we keep 1 full and a month of incrementals.

[foggy]

Yes, VM ID's will change and you would need assistance from Veeam support in matching them in the database.

If the certificate problem is the same as discussed in this thread, you can try a workaround described there.

[flesz]

thanks foggy. I will create a support ticket to have the IDs fixed after the migration. It was mentioned before, that the existing jobs would have to be modified, what's involved?

[foggy]

You would need to re-add VMs into the existing jobs, after they get their new ID's. Support will provide you the necessary instructions.

[hasayeret]

Hi guys,

I had to remove my host from it's original vCenter and move it on order to run updates on the host.
Then after I re-added it back to the original vCenter I get the message above when I run my replication job.
I don't want to delete everything and re-do everything and I do not see any option in my job.
Running Veeam B&R 9.0

Thanks!!!

[foggy]

Rotem, you need to re-map your replication jobs to existing replica VMs.

[Vitaliy S.]

Please be aware that if your source VM IDs have changed (due to host re-registration), then after replica mapping all existing restore points will be discarded.

[readie]

We are just at the same point as Flesz above. Have created a new VCentre V6 and am about to migrate our hosts etc (planning to use the Fling which generates PowerCLI scripts to recreate all the folders and users/roles etc.).
I have tried to work through this long thread, and can't quite work out exactly what the results are.
1. I contact support before I migrate, to ask for any useful scripts and guidance.
Can anyone now please outline the effects for our backup, backup copy, and replication jobs.
Which if any will start a new full backup (as I have to plan on the time that takes, and the space required).
What restore points will I lose (don't mind losing most of them, but we have two backup copy jobs where we have 3 restore points stored every quarter, which I should like to keep if possible, and 3 restore points stored every fortnight, which I could just bear to lose).
Thanks for any guidance before I take the plunge.

[foggy]

Bob, looking at the top of this page, it seemed that you've already managed to get around this with the help of support. Anyway, unless you do ID matching, any VMs with changed IDs will require full backup/replication. And you will not lose any restore points, new restore points for the VMs with new IDs will be created.