If you're using vSphere 8, you can dedicate a vmkernel port to provisioning traffic. You can choose the virtual switch/NICs this traffic flows through. See the documentation at Cold Migration in Your vSphere Environment. If you're using a version lower than 8, then the traffic will go over the management network for a cold migration. If you're on 7 or below and licensed for vMotion/Storage vMotion, use that if possible.
Screenshot of configuring Provisioning traffic in v8
Original Message:
Sent: Apr 03, 2025 09:27 AM
From: cer113a
Subject: Storage migration of powered off virtual machines
Hi
We just acquired new storage system and of course have old storage system. All hosts in the cluster will see both old and new datastores. We have decided to power off virtual machines to be migrated and then perform migration from old datastores to new datastores
Question is how cold storage migration happens does it do it using management network provisioning network or no network at all. Same hosts just new storage. On the internet you find whole bunch of political pamphlets but I am not really into that. We want to make sure that it doesnt use management network otherwise it would saturate it as we have low bandwidth on management network
If we have to configure Provisioning network it is fine but just want to know what mechanism is used to do storage cold migration meaning powered off vm from old datastore (old storage) to new one.