I am going to do hardware refresh on my current exsi cluster. Will this migration method work?

[Leslie Chua]

Kindly view the attached drawing for a better understanding. I am going to do hardware refresh because the old servers are almost 8 years old. I am running Dell Nutanix storage with EXSI as hypervisors.

I understand that I can use the vMotion of VMs and Storage to a different cluster if I use one of the new hosts added to the existing Vcenter server as transfer host? Which was available since exsi 5.1? I am using essential plus license and how do I get temp license on the new host cluster during the migration process.

I am able to power down the VMs during migration which I will do during weekends. But the largest VM is a file server with 2TB data and I am running 10GB switches on these hosts. Will this method work? Thanks.

[Leslie Chua]

anyone can help?

[CMS201110141]

I don't know a lot about Nutanix, so I can't tell if there are additional options or restrictions in regard of the storage, but besides this it's important to know

• what's the version of ESXi and vCenter in the old and the new Cluster (I see 5.1 mentionend but I hope that's not the currently used version)?
• do you stay on the Essentials Plus license or do the new hosts come with new licenses?

In general Essentials Plus does not cover Storage vMotion, however it's usually still possible to migrate online with the option "Change both compute resource and storage". It may take some time as vRAM and disk space of the VM need to be transferred via the network, but should be doable with 10 Gb. Alternatively offline storage (and host) migration with the VM powered down is another option.

You usually don't need to get special temp licenses as an newly installed ESXi hosts operates in trial mode for 60 days (up to version 8, at least). The same applies to vcenter if you do a fresh install or upgrade to a higher release version (e.g. from 7 to 8). 

But it all depends on the versions used and their interoperability...

Regards,

  Carl

[pcgeek2009]

I have not done this type of migration with Nutanix before, or essential licensing. However, as previously mentioned, if you have not added any licensing to the new Nutanix, you may have some extra features. I am not sure if it is connected to a previously installed vCenter. We did use to have a few small clusters, but we ran AHV on them. From what i remember though, it basically is running NFS storage and there is not a separately configured network for storage. If the same vCenter is connecting the two clusters, you should be able to do it by selecting the option to change both storage and host, but I would first try it with either a test system or something that is not critical. Shutting the systems down will improve how fast they migrate as they vCenter will not need to keep track of any changes while moving it. 

[Leslie Chua]

@CMS201110141  and @pcgeek2009

Thanks for the replies. I assumed I do not need extra licenses to just to do the migration. I can just use the trial licenses.

My current exsi hosts are running on 8 u3. I presume the new ones will run on this version as well.

The nutanix cluster is basically like a VSAN. But instead of using vmware, it uses 3 controller vms from nutanix to create a shared storage.

The hypervisor hosts are mapped using NFS storage.

Can essential plus license do migration of vms to different storage?

I need to make sure it works else I might need to include professional migration services into the server quotation. Thanks

[pcgeek2009]

From looking at the license features, it looks like it will only if the virtual machines are powered off. It also has to move both host and storage at the same time (which is not an issue in this case). I did see some conflicting information on whether they had to be off or not. As I mentioned, I would use a test system for the first one. 

[Leslie Chua]

@pcgeek2009

I think you are mistaken.

The nutanix controller VMs are contained in each of the esxi hosts. The old cluster has 3 and they are configured as a cluster and will create a shared nfs storage.

The new hardware will also have 3 nutanix controller vms to create its new shared storage cluster.

I am only going to move the windows servers in the old cluster into the new one and discard the old one. I will not need to move any nutanix controller vms.

[pcgeek2009]

When I said storage, I meant the VMDK for each virtual machine you are moving, not the underlying storage or controllers on each Nutanix cluster. 

[Leslie Chua]

@pcgeek2009 

Yes. I do see this option on my vcenter. So assuming if I add a host from the new cluster into the existing vcenter? I should be able to move those vmdk to the new storage?

I can off the VMs as I will do it during weekends. 

[pcgeek2009]

I am assuming you do not have the new Nutanix connected to a vCenter already, correct? If not, then once you add it to the existing one you should be able to migrate. 

[Leslie Chua]

@pcgeek2009 

I've not purchased the new servers yet. I am trying to gauge my options to see if I can handle this myself or to engage professional services when I order the new servers.

[pcgeek2009]

If you can set up the Nutanix yourself, the rest should be fairly straight forward. I have done them, but it has been 6 or 7 years ago. We had too many problems with the platform, even with AHV, so we replaced them all. If the vCenter is external to your old cluster, as your diagram shows, that is best. However, if it is embedded on the old cluster, that would be a problem.