How to limit number of concurrent vmotions

[tWiZzLeR]

I'm running vCenter Server 4.1u1 and ESXi 4.1u1 on our three hosts and I'm looking for a way to limit the number of concurrent vmotions to 2.  In other words, if I select 10 VMs to vmotion from host A to host B I only want 2 vmotions to occur at the same time, then when the first two finish then two more start, etc.  Any idea how to accomplish this?

[Troy_Clavell]

here's a good article and the steps to increase/decrease

http://www.boche.net/blog/?p=806

[tWiZzLeR]

Thanks Troy.  I had actually run into this article before and had tried setting: <maxCostPerHost>8</maxCostPerHost> which, according to the article, should have limited my number of warm VMotions to 2 but does not.

I'm running Windows 2008 R2 on the vCenter Server so the path for the vpdx.cfg file (Default location “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter”) does not exist.  However, I think that I located the correct file at: "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter".  Does this sound right?

Any other ideas?

[Troy_Clavell]

I think that I located the correct file at: "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter

Yes, that is the correct path.

[tWiZzLeR]

Hummm, I'm wondering if this setting is no longer used in vSphere 4.1 as it seems to have no effect on the number of concurrent VMotions that I can perform (and yes, I have rebooted the vCenter Server after making the change).

[tWiZzLeR]

Assuming that I followed the instructions in the above article correctly here is what the <vpxd> section of my vpxd.cfg looks like:

<vpxd>
    <ResourceManager>
      <maxCostPerHost>8</maxCostPerHost>
    </ResourceManager>
    <das>
      <serializeadds>true</serializeadds>
      <slotCpuMinMHz>256</slotCpuMinMHz>
      <slotMemMinMB>0</slotMemMinMB>
    </das>
    <filterOverheadLimitIssues>true</filterOverheadLimitIssues>
  </vpxd>

[Troy_Clavell]

seems the math has changed a bit in 4.1.  It is expained below.  I guess you just need to a bit more to get to the number you are confortable with

http://rcmtech.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/change-number-of-simultaneous-vmotion-operations-in-vsphere-4-1/

[RR9]

i think these settings are used in 3.5 ...

i found one of the kb on vmotion in vsphere ..not very much relevent to this...but for your info..

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022851

[tWiZzLeR]

Thanks ranjit99 for the article.  That's exactly my issue; I don't want 4 concurrent VMotion operations as I want to limit it to 2.  There must be a way somehow to limit this...

[tWiZzLeR]

Does anyone else have any ideas?