VM migration between vCenter instances

[tom.weiner]

I'm looking to migrate some VMs from one vCenter to another in the most efficient manner. I was originally planning to use Quick Migration, but ran into some errors when trying to move larger VMs which made me have to back out of that process. My plan now is to replicate a VM from it's current location to the new location and then do a replication failover to the VM running in the new location. I have the replication job created and it has been running successfully over the past few days. I do have one question though. The replication failover documentation states that when performing permanent failovers "The permanent failover scenario is acceptable if the original VM and VM replica are located in the same site and are nearly equal in terms of resources. In this case, users will not experience any latency in ongoing operations." The replicated VM will be using the same resources, but will reside on a different site. Does this mean that I shouldn't perform a permanent failover, or that it might cause some latency while the failover takes place? This will be during a planned maintenance window so the latency is not an issue. I was leaning towards the replication for the simplicity and fast switch over. Thanks.

[foggy]

Hi Tom, I think what this note means is that when you do permanent failover, you need to make sure it doesn't affect users' experience and they will be able to continue using services without any performance degradation. Sometimes people replicate to a weaker hardware or remote site located over a slow link just to be able to provide services during a short period while original environment is being repaired, and then failback to it once it is up again. This is not the case in your scenario, so I think you're good. Just a little note, I'd recommend considering planned failover to prepare the migration thoroughly and avoid any data loss.

[veremin]

Your scenario looks valid, we've seen number of customer that did exactly that.

Once initial replication cycle is over, use planned failover which will not only synchronize the latest VM state, but also will switch the workloads (failover) after doing that.

Thanks.

[t481]

Hello all,
Would it be possible to schedule a Planned Failover?
I would like to migrate the data overnight so that data is migrated and DNS records update so that the systems are ready for users the following morning.

[veremin]

Only if you write a PS script and schedule it via Task Scheduler. Thanks.

[t481]

Only if you write a PS script and schedule it via Task Scheduler. Thanks.

Any chance I can get help with the PS from your support team?

[ponra05]

The VM replication from one Vcenter to another Vcenter works fine. Make sure that you add both the Vcenter to the Veeam Manager console and have 2 separate proxy on each Vcenter location. Also enable WAN Accelerator between Proxies.

[veremin]

Any chance I can get help with the PS from your support team?

You will need to:

- Find replicas, using Get-VBRReplica cmdlet
- Get the latest restore point, using Get-VBRRestorePoint cmdlet (leverage CreationTime as sorting parameter)
- Execute planned failover, using Start-VBRViReplicaFailover (coupled with -Planned switch)

Thanks.

[t481]

Would this example work as intended?
Get-VBRReplica -Name "REPLICATION JOB NAME"|Get-VBRRestorePoint |Start-VBRViReplicaFailover -Planned

I am unclear about the CreationTime part

[veremin]

No, the provided example won't work, as restore point will be selected almost randomly.

You need to get the latest restore point and execute planned failover. That's why sorting based on creationtime parameter is needed:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRRestorePoint | sort -Descending creationtime | select -First 1 

Thanks.

[elijahtan]

Hello everyone.

I have 2 VMWare ESXi Hosts (free) A and B, with Host A running VM instances live, and Host B empty.

My scenario is in fact quite simple.
If I want to move/migrate one of the VM instances from Hosts A to Host B, without shutting down the VM instance,
which is the best choice for me, VM Copy or Replication?

As I'm still quite unclear what is the pro and con between these two, I can hardly decide what is the best for my scenario.
Glad if someone can give advice to me.

[veremin]

Hi, Elijah,

And welcome to our community forums.

Replication job followed by planned failover is a way to go.

Thanks!