Quick Migration > ESXi 4.1 VM to new ESXi 6.5 host?

[pwashburn]

Small business with ESXi 4.1 hosts with 3 Windows VM's.

Replacing host with a new ESXi 6.5 host connected on same office network.
New ESXi 6.5 host will have Vmware vSphere Essentials Kit.

Will Veeam Quick Migration be able to Quick Migrate the VM's on the old ESXi 4.1 hosts to the new ESXi 6.5 host without significant down time?

Thanks
Pete

[foggy]

Hi Pete, yes, you can use Quick Migration for that. Another possibility for such migration is a planned failover.

[pwashburn]

Thanks! That should make it pretty simple!

[pwashburn]

Tried my first Quick Migration and have an issue. Have purchased VMware's Server Essentials Kit (3 servers, 2 processors each). Migrating from one ESXi 4.1 host to a new ESXi 6.5 host, so within the licensing limits for Server Essentials Kit. The ESXi 4.1 host has a free version of vSphere. So when I tried a Quick Migration from it, it failed saying that the source host wasn't licensed. Any suggestions on how to apply the Server Essentials Kit license to the 4.1 host to change it's license from the free version to the Essentials Kit license? I've tried applying the Essentials Kit's license key, but it comes back as an invalid key.

Any other suggestions? I realize that the VMware Standalone Converter would work, but was wanting to not have too much downtime to migrate the VM's. There's 3 VM's I need to migrate. 2 I could go the Standalone Converter route, but the 3th is a domain controller that I wouldn't want down for more than a few minutes.

[foggy]

Haven't you asked VMware regarding the licensing issue?

[pwashburn]

From what I can find out, they're no longer issuing license keys for ESXi 4.1. So it doesn't look like that's an option. I'm installing the vCenter Essentials package that comes with the Essentials Kit in the next day or two. But indications there are that vCenter wont' pick up the free version of ESXi either.

[foggy]

Well, this is something only VMware could help with.

[phikveath]

i want to copy 200GB guest to new ESXi server less than 5 hours of downtime. in "Adding VMware vSphere Servers Guide" recommended vCenter, not a standalone ESX(i) host. but i don't have vCenter. so i want to ask 2 questions:

1. what is the problem if i use standalone ESX(i) host? or which veeam's feature can i use in vCenter and not in standalone ESX(i) host?
2. which way to speed up this process? i install veeam on my PC. So should i connect in the same network or can i connect from outside by public IP? And is my PC speed will effect to it or not?

thank so much.

[DGrinev]

Hi Tor and welcome to the community!

You can use Veeam Quick Migration between two ESXi hosts and yes, you can speed up the process by deploying additional proxies.
Please review these topics there is a lot useful information:
Slow Quick Migration
Quick Migration big thread
Thanks!