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how to move templates between datastores

  • 1.  how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Feb 28, 2014 12:39 AM

    Hi there,

    I have 10 VM templates on a datastore and would like to move all templates to a different datastore. What is the Best way to move templates between datastores?

    Thanks.



  • 2.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Feb 28, 2014 03:08 AM

    Welcome to the Community - you can convert the template to a VM and then cold migrate it to the new datastore -



  • 3.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Feb 28, 2014 03:14 PM

    I've never understood why a template can't be migrated. Seems like an over-sight to me.

    But whatever - not that difficult to convert then migrate, just is a hassle ...



  • 4.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Mar 04, 2014 02:46 AM

    Thanks for you inputs! Below is what I tired with its results:

    I tried to move the Template from Datastore using the 'Move to..' feature in Browse Datastore view. While the Template files got moved the actual VMDK files in the templates have enlarged.

    My initial template folder size in Browse Datastore view was < 10GB and now after moving template folder to the new Datastore its size has grown to > 30 GB.. The VMDK file has actually enlarged.

    Any idea why the VMDK file size has increased?



  • 5.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Mar 04, 2014 08:34 AM

    I do it this way...

    1. Convert templates to VMs
    2. Leave powered off
    3. In the Virtual Machines tab, select all the VMs you want to move > hold down Shift and Right-click > Migrate
    4. Migrate Datastore - go through the wizard
    5. Will migrate 4 at once and queue the rest, will migrate them as the others complete
    6. Convert back to templates.
    7. Job done.


  • 6.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Nov 10, 2015 09:26 PM

    Im looking for a cleaner way to replicate a Template Datastore. Right now we have a volume on our test cluster. Its being snapmirrored to our production cluster and our secondary datacenter cluster. We make changes to the test volume, update the snapmirror, and break it off so the other vCenters can see it. It seems that lately we’ve been seeing some weirdness on our hosts and we think it might have to do with this shared datastore solution. We also run into some mounting issues when we update and break the volume. None the less, is this something we can do with VSC? Or something else? We want to utilize VAAI so having the volume on its own NetApp cluster is the only way to do that, so keeping the volume in one NetApp cluster and just presenting it to the vCenters won’t be an option.  I’ve read the old Provisioning and Cloning option had some remote mounting options. We’re currently using VSC 6.1



  • 7.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Mar 19, 2021 07:53 AM

    Good one



  • 8.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Mar 05, 2014 06:39 PM

    Hello, i'm not sure but i think when you have some datastores with two different block size, and if you move VMs between with "Move TO", the migrated VM change to thick formart. This is your case?

    Regards



  • 9.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Jul 07, 2022 08:15 PM

    Am I alone in thinking it's incredibly stupid to have to convert a template to a VM in order to change what datastore it's on? That's a bit of a pain in the ass.



  • 10.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Jul 10, 2022 02:36 AM

    Just wanted to say, you are not the only one.



  • 11.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Sep 15, 2022 02:17 PM

    I concur



  • 12.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Sep 15, 2022 09:53 PM

    as weinstein5 mentioned, I see that is the safest and approved way to do. convert to vm and migrate!



  • 13.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Sep 16, 2022 07:56 PM

    you can't move templates directly. first, you need to convert the templates to VM and then migrate the VM to another data store after migrating the VM, convert the VM to template again. 



  • 14.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Oct 07, 2022 09:39 AM

    maybe in vSphere8 we will be able to migrate templates



  • 15.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Jun 16, 2023 07:10 PM

    In vSphere 8 at least, I'm able to right click on a template, select "Clone to Template..." and from there select the compute and storage resource. So I just first rename the template in the old location and then clone it to the new location with the desired name.



  • 16.  RE: how to move templates between datastores

    Posted Aug 12, 2023 01:58 AM

    Even with the vsphere 7, there is an option available "clone to template".

    You can right click on template and select "clone to template" Option. Further you can select desired host and datastore.