Migrating the VM that Veeam is on?

[J@M]

Hi

I'm tying my brain up in knots on this

Is there a way of using quick migration to migrate the VM that Veeam is installed on and running, to a different datastore?! Is there a remote agent that can be installed on another machine for instance?

Cheers

Jason

[foggy]

Jason, this is possible only in case Storage vMotion is available. Otherwise, VM will be suspended during Quick Migration and the process will fail. You'd better use replication job with planned failover for that.

[J@M]

cheers Foggy, unfortunately this site does not have storage vMotion licence - that makes sense though - I could migrate using vSphere I guess

Thanks

[haslund]

Are you using vCenter and vSphere 5.1 or newer? Do you have a vMotion (not Storage vMotion) license?
If yes to all, then you can simply use Cross-Host vMotion (XvMotion) in the vSphere Web Client (not available in the old vSphere Client C#).

This will enable you to migrate it from one datastore to another datastore while the VM is online (you have to change host at the same time though, but you can always run a normal vMotion afterwards to change back to previous host).

[J@M]

Hi

No the site doesn't have storage vMotion license

The veeam server and the vcenter server are on the same host

Could I use vsphere to migrate the vcenter server using the web client, to another host, then use veeam to migrate it to a new datastore?

Thanks

Jason

[foggy]

The veeam server and the vcenter server are on the same host

Do you mean they are installed on the same VM?

[J@M]

Hi

No they are seperate VM's but reside on the same physical host within the cluster

Jason

[foggy]

Then I'm not getting your previous post, since previously we're talking about migrating Veeam B&R VM, not vCenter server.

[J@M]

Hi Foggy

Yes that's true - sorry for confusion - I have to migrate the Veeam VM AND vCenter server VM too - it depends on which order is best to move vCenter and Veeam server

So - I propose to

use vsphere to migrate Veeam to new datastore
use vpshere web client to migrate vcenter to different host
then use Veeam to migrate vcenter to new datastore

The driver for all of this is a new SAN extension has been installed - so I need to move everything from the existing datastores onto new storage - once there, re-configure the existing vdisk with bigger volumes, then move the VM's back that need to take advantage of those 10K discs, and leave the slower stuff where it is on 7200 discs

Jason

[foggy]

then use Veeam to migrate vcenter to new datastore

For that, be sure you're using connections to standalone hosts. not vCenter itself.

[J@M]

ah gotcha - using Virtual Appliance?

edit: vsphere client connected to ESXi host that vcenter is currently on?

[foggy]

What I meant was that you need to add vCenter VM to the job via standalone host and use standalone host as the migration target, instead of pointing to both via vCenter server connection,

[J@M]

OK I'm being thick here, not sure I understand - sorry

my vcenter VM and Veaam VM are both on same ESXi host - let's say my .17 IP

my vcenter server on .230

so are you saying that if I connect to my ESXi host (.17) and connect to my Veeam VM, and run the Quick Migration job from there, rather than go in via .230?

[foggy]

I'm talking about selecting VMs for Quick Migration. You need to add standalone ESXi hosts to Veeam B&R and point QM to VMs under standalone hosts rather than under vCenter Server.

[J@M]

the penny drops! many thanks I get you - you can select host or cluster in the drop down and search for host

brilliant thank you!

[foggy]

To be more precise, while adding VI server to Veeam B&R console, you can add individual hosts (using their credentials) and/or entire vCenter Server that will display all the registered resources (including the same hosts). So to migrate vCenter, you need to add source and target hosts as standalone and point QM job to them (not select them under vCenter, but individually).

[J@M]

OK

So in Backup Infrastructure > Managed Servers add my two ESXi hosts in there and in QM job settings, select my source as individual host and target as individual host?

Thanks

[foggy]

Right.

[J@M]

Perfect, sorted - added my standalone hosts and can see the VM's residing on them - many thanks again

[dhrechkosy]

Hi All,

I'm wondering what is best practice for migrating the actual VM that Veeam B&R software is installed on between ESXi hosts? I need to move it off the host it is currently on to free up resources and to boost the performance by having it on its own host.

Thoughts? Am I going about this the wrong way? I'm open to any suggestions and criticism.

Thanks!

-Dev

[foggy]

You can use replication job or Quick Migration to perform this task. Please review this thread for details.