Moving VM from vCenter to VCD (10.3)

[Mathieu Ploton]

Hello,

We are doing a VCD migration and I am moving VM from vCenter using Veeam Quick migration. Unfortunately, Veeam Quick Migration can only migrate vCenter to vCenter. I now need to migrate from vCenter to vCloud Director.

I have tried to use the vApp creation menu and import from vCenter but it is basically cloning the VM which can take some time.

I wonder if there is way to simply move the VM from vCenter to the vDC ressource pool?

It seems like it used to be possible but when I try the exact same way as below, it does not work,

https://www.paluszek.com/wp/2018/10/23/migrate-vms-and-networking-to-vcloud-director-video-walkthrough/

Any idea?

 

[Swapnil Chikhaldekar]

Hi Matt,

You may use VM Discovery Feature which can auto-import a VM which is part of resource pool belong to vCloud Director.

Below is one quick screenshot:

 

This is my current vCD resource pool hirarchy set up.

If I want a VM to be managed by vCloud Director, Enable VM discovery feature from Provider portal-->Administrations-->Settings-->General and scroll to the end of the page.

Created a new VM and attached it to vCD based network segment/virtualwire. Dragged that VM to vCD-->Org resource pool and then after few minutes, VM will get discovered in vCD.

Note: Do make sure that network attached to VM is already part of vCD organization. If import doesn't work, Check for /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/vcloud-container-info.log for error.

One of the error that I received is as below:

2023-08-17 09:28:54,799 | ERROR | Backend-activity-pool-87043 | CreateAutoManagedVAppActivity | [Activity Execution] Encountered error while importing VM [vcId=fae7d8b1-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3, moref=vm-15026] from VC fae7d8b1
-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3 into VCD - Handle: urn:uuid:3d6c91b7-e516-4d8a-ac78-1e529829b50c, Current Phase: CreateAutoManagedVAppActivity$ImportVmFromVcPhase | activity=(com.vmware.vcloud.activities.vcresiliency.CreateAutoManagedVAp
pActivity,urn:uuid:3d6c91b7-e516-4d8a-ac78-1e529829b50c)
com.vmware.vcloud.api.presentation.service.BadRequestException: Cannot import auto discovered VM Linux from VC because port group [vcId=fae7d8b1-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3, moref=dvportgroup-3026] is connected to VC network none, whi
ch is not a valid Organization VDC network.

Make sure that VM is connected to correct port group/segment/logicalSwitch that vCD organization has access to.

Give Kudos if this fixes the issue.

[Mathieu Ploton]

Hi there,

Good call to look at these logs, unfortunately the error is a bit different:

2023-08-17 11:15:33,841 | WARN | pc-activity-pool-17901 | ComputeFabricImpl | Resource-Pool change of VM [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=vm-7817] from [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=resgroup-34] to [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=resgroup-9115] in VC is not supported because the source and destination resource pools are not part of same elastic PVDC | activity=(com.vmware.vcloud.vimproxy.internal.impl.PCEventProcessingActivity,urn:uuid:4e5253b9-31d7-3412-ae03-2b5c70136c50)

[Swapnil Chikhaldekar]

Hi Matt,

That is just a warning message as VM moved from cluster root resource pool to vCD managed resource pool.

Search name of the VM in that log and try to validate the issue.

- Move VM back to out of vCD resource pool

- Connect the VM to correct vCD backed Organization Network port group/segment

- Drag the VM again to vCD Managed resource pool for specific organization

- Validate logs again with VM name and see what the error is

[Mathieu Ploton]

Hello,

- Move VM back to out of vCD resource pool DONE

- Connect the VM to correct vCD backed Organization Network port group/segment DONE

- Drag the VM again to vCD Managed resource pool for specific organization DONE

- Validate logs again with VM name and see what the error is:

I am "tailing" the log while moving the VM and the only message I can see is:

2023-08-18 02:51:43,824 | WARN | pc-activity-pool-19494 | ComputeFabricImpl | Resource-Pool change of VM [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=vm-7817] from [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=resgroup-34] to [vcId=4dfdcc11-deac-4f31-a856-a1cc5fe38742, moref=resgroup-9115] in VC is not supported because the source and destination resource pools are not part of same elastic PVDC | activity=(com.vmware.vcloud.vimproxy.internal.impl.PCEventProcessingActivity,urn:uuid:7514d92c-1102-3a10-bb37-2655c4a6af83)

If i grep for VM ID vm-7817 in the log, it is also the only message that appears.

[Swapnil Chikhaldekar]

Hi Matt,

Can you grep the log with VM name and see the status.

Below is example log snippet:

2023-08-17 09:28:54,799 | ERROR | Backend-activity-pool-87043 | CreateAutoManagedVAppActivity | [Activity Execution] Encountered error while importing VM [vcId=fae7d8b1-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3, moref=vm-15026] from VC fae7d8b1
-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3 into VCD - Handle: urn:uuid:3d6c91b7-e516-4d8a-ac78-1e529829b50c, Current Phase: CreateAutoManagedVAppActivity$ImportVmFromVcPhase | activity=(com.vmware.vcloud.activities.vcresiliency.CreateAutoManagedVAp
pActivity,urn:uuid:3d6c91b7-e516-4d8a-ac78-1e529829b50c)
com.vmware.vcloud.api.presentation.service.BadRequestException: Cannot import auto discovered VM Linux from VC because port group [vcId=fae7d8b1-a12a-4e08-b2dc-d21f33204bb3, moref=dvportgroup-3026] is connected to VC network none, whi
ch is not a valid Organization VDC network.

 

Cannot import auto discovered VM Linux from VC. Here Linux is VM name which I tried to import to vCD.

[Mathieu Ploton]

There is nothing related to the VM name in the log. I dont think the VM name is used in these logs anyway?

[Jean-Baptiste Nivoit]

This has been corrected in 10.4.x i believe. For a VM to be importable this way, its vNICs (if connected) must be connected to none or a PG that backs a VCD network (here a vapp network, a vdc network, or an external network).