Specifications

Basic System Administration
232 VMware, Inc.
About Migration
Migrationistheprocessofmovingavirtualmachinefromonehosttoanother.Ifthe
virtualmachineispowered‐offorsuspended,thisprocessiscalledmigration.Ifthe
virtualmachineispowered‐on,thisprocessiscalledmigrationwithVMotion.Migration
withVMotion,designedtobeusedbetween
compatiblesystems,allowsyoutomigrate
virtualmachineswithnodowntimebutrequiresVMotionlicensingandspecific
configuration.
InVirtualCenter2.0andgreater,youhavetwomigrationoptions:
 Migration–Movingapowered‐offorsuspendedvirtualmachine.Optionally,
duringmigration,youcanrelocateconfigurationanddiskfiles.
 MigrationwithVMotion–Movingavirtualmachinethatispoweredon.
Virtualmachinesthatarepoweredofforsuspendedcanbemovedbetween
datacenters.VMotioncannotbeusedtomigratevirtualmachinesbetweendatacenters.
ThefollowingtableliststheVMotioncapabilitiesfor32‐and64‐bitguestvirtual
machines.
N
OTEMigratingsuspendedvirtualmachinesissupportedinESXServer3.xand
ESXServer3ionly.VirtualmachinescreatedusingESXServer2.xmustbepowered
offbeforemigration.Forthistypeofmigration,virtualmachinesarenotrequired
tobeonsharedstorage.
N
OTEVirtualmachinesmustbeavailablefromanyformofsharedstorage,such
asSAN,iSCSI,orNAS.MigrationwithVMotioncannotbeusedtomigratevirtual
machinesusingrawdisksforclusteringpurposes.
Table 15-1. VMotion Support
32-bit Guest Virtual Machines 64-bit Guest Virtual Machines
VMotion
(poweredon)
Fullysupportedwithin
VMotion‐compatible32‐bitCPUs
AND64‐bitCPUs(Intel‐to‐Intelor
AMD‐to‐AMD).
Fullysupportedwithin
VMotion‐compatible64‐bitCPUs
(Intel‐to‐IntelorAMD‐to‐AMD).
Cold
Migration
(poweredoff)
Fullysupportedwithinsupported
32‐bitCPUsand64‐bit
CPUsand
abletopoweronirrespectiveofany
CPUincompatibilities
(Intel‐to‐AMDOK).
Fullysupportedwithin
VMotion‐compatible64‐bitCPUs
(Intel‐to‐AMDOK).