Veeam File Copy vs. Storage vMotion

[ChuckS42]

Picture, if you will, two VMware Clusters. One, known as "Old 'n Busted", is a series of blade servers connected to an iSCSI storage array. The other ("The New Hotness") is a new Hyper-Converged Cluster with its local storage. Both clusters are in the same datacenter, connected to the same vCenter instance.

"Old 'n Busted" has a File Server that has over a dozen 2TB virtual hard disks (around 20TB total). These disks contain static data - written a long time ago, filled, no longer being written to. Read Only.

My task is to migrate this data to "The New Hotness", without affecting the old file server. All I really need are the VMDKs to be moved; they'll be attached to a new file server on HCI cluster. I have two options: Veeam File Copy, or Storage vMotion (both would be from mounted array snapshots, not the actual files). The former requires no special configuration; the latter requires I connect "The New Hotness" to my old iSCSI network (something I'd rather avoid).

What I want to know is - which will be faster, Veeam File Copy or Storage vMotion?

(I know this scenario is not perfect, rough edges and all that. Still being worked out.)

[HannesK]

Hello,
from a Veeam perspective I would go for Quick Migration or Replication over Veeam File Copy

Storage vMotion is also possible without shared storage.

Best regards,
Hannes