Specifications

Basic System Administration
246 VMware, Inc.
StorageVMotionhasanumberofusesinadministeringvirtualinfrastructure,
includingthefollowing:
 UpgradingVMwareInfrastructurewithoutvirtualmachinedowntime.Duringan
upgradefromESXServer2.xtoESXServer3.5,youcanmigraterunningvirtual
machinesfromaVMFS2datastoretoaVMFS3datastore,andupgradetheVMFS2
datastorewithoutanyimpactonvirtualmachines.YoucanthenuseStorage
VMotiontomigrate
virtualmachinesbacktotheoriginaldatastorewithoutany
virtualmachinedowntime.
 Storagemaintenanceandreconfiguration.YoucanuseStorageVMotiontomove
virtualmachinesoffofastoragedevicetoallowmaintenanceorreconfigurationof
thestoragedevicewithoutvirtualmachinedowntime.
 Redistributingstorageload.YoucanuseStorageVMotiontoredistributevirtual
machinesorvirtualdiskstodifferentstoragevolumestobalancecapacityor
improveperformance.
Storage VMotion Requirements and Limitations
StorageVMotionissubjecttothefollowingrequirementsandlimitations:
 VirtualmachineswithsnapshotscannotbemigratedusingStorageVMotion.
 Virtualmachinedisksmustbeinpersistentmodeorberawdevicemaps.
 Thehostonwhichthevirtualmachineisrunningmusthavesufficientresourcesto
supporttwoinstancesofthevirtualmachinerunningconcurrentlyforabrieftime.
 ThehostonwhichthevirtualmachineisrunningmusthaveaVMotionlicense,
andbecorrectlyconfiguredforVMotion.
 Thehostonwhichthevirtualmachineisrunningmusthaveaccesstoboththe
sourceandtargetdatastores.
 VMwareInfrastructure3supportsamaximumoffoursimultaneousVMotionor
StorageVMotionaccessestoasingledatastore.AmigrationwithVMotion
involvestwosimultaneousaccessestothedatastore,bythesourceanddestination
hosts.AmigrationwithStorageVMotioninvolvesoneaccesstothesource
datastoreandoneaccessto
thedestinationdatastore.Therefore,ifnoother
migrationsareoccurring,uptofourconcurrentStorageVMotionmigrations
involvingthedatastorecanoccursimultaneously.