HP Integrity Virtual Machines Manager 4.1 Software: User Guide

• Balance VM Host workloads
• Optimize physical resource utilization
Online migration of virtual machines enables a higher level of workload-to-resource alignment,
flexibility, and agility.
Reasons for migrating a virtual machine offline include the need to:
• Move a stopped virtual machine's configuration information
• Save VM Host resources while migrating virtual machines (for example, memory and CPUs
are not consumed during offline migration)
• Copy local storage, logical volumes, or file-backed storage to the target VM Host (such
storage cannot be migrated online)
• Migrate a virtual machine between VM Hosts that might have different processor types,
making online migration impossible
The Migrate Virtual Machine wizard is started by selecting Tools→Migrate Virtual Machine...
from the VM Manager menu bar. The menu item is enabled from the VM Properties view, from
which you can migrate the one viewed virtual machine, or from a tab on which one or more
virtual machines are selected, such as the VM Host Virtual Machines tab, from which you can
migrate multiple virtual machines at the same time. For more information about starting the
wizard, see “Starting the Migrate Virtual Machine wizard” (page 103).
The Migrate Virtual Machine wizard guides you through a two-step procedure. The screen for
the first step prompts you to specify the target VM Host. The screen for the second step allows
you to preview the HP Integrity Virtual Machine commands that will be invoked to initiate the
migration and allows you to initiate the migration.
Using the Migrate Virtual Machine wizard, you can migrate virtual machines from the VM Host
you are currently using with VM Manager to another VM Host; you cannot use the wizard to
migrate virtual machines from another VM Host to the current VM Manager VM Host.
While a virtual machine is being migrated to another VM Host, you cannot stop, start, restart,
modify, or delete that virtual machine. You can continue using VM Manager for other purposes.
NOTE: If the virtual machine is configured as a Serviceguard package, the wizard allows you
to migrate the virtual machine online or offline. However, you cannot migrate a virtual machine
that is configured as a Serviceguard cluster node.
When migrating a virtual machine that is configured as a Serviceguard package, Serviceguard
protection is suspended temporarily during the migration.
Capacity Advisor cannot collect utilization information for a virtual machine that is being
migrated.
For more information about Serviceguard and Capacity Advisor requirements and
recommendations pertaining to virtual machine migration, see “Planning requirements and
recommendations” (page 101).
Planning requirements and recommendations
Successful migration of a virtual machine requires that the source and target hosts be configured
appropriately. If they are configured properly before migration of a virtual machine, the migration
task completes more quickly. Configuration requirements for online migration are more elaborate
than for offline migration.
Migrating virtual machines 101