After migrating a virtual machine through vSphere vMotion, an event is triggered which perform a reconciliation in VMware Aria Automation.

You can use vSphere vMotion to migrate your virtual machines without powering them off and as such avoiding having any downtime in your infrastructure. For more information on vSphere vMotion, go to Migrating Virtual Machines with vSphere vMotion.

VMware Aria Automation supports the following migration scenarios:

  • Migrating virtual machines in the vCenter instance.
  • Migrating virtual machines across vCenter instances.

After initiating the migration from the vSphere Client, the data collection in VMware Aria Automation registers the migration as started and triggers an event to reconcile the migration changes. You can use the Compute post migration reconcile status event topic to subscribe to this event. For more information on the event topic, go to Event topics provided with Automation Assembler.

After the migration finishes successfully, all the changes to the virtual machine are reconciled and can be viewed in the cloud template in which the virtual machine is added.

Requirements

Before performing a vMotion migration, be aware of the following requirements:

  • When performing a migration across vCenter instances, verify that both instances are added as cloud zones to the same project used in the cloud template.
  • When performing a migration across vCenter instances, be aware that tags associated with the virtual machine in the source vCenter are not reconciled after migrating to the target vCenter.
  • When performing a migration across vCenter instances, day 2 network reconfiguration and scaling out are not supported.
  • Migration reconciliation for existing NSX-T networks is supported. However, this covers only the network itself. Additional NSX constructs such as on-demand networks, security groups, and load balancers are not reconciled.
  • Verify that the virtual machine you want to migrate is not part of a cluster or is sharing resources with other virtual machines such as networks or load balancers.
  • When migrating a virtual machine that uses a First Class Disk (FCD) there are certain limitations on the day 2 actions that can be performed on the virtual machine.
    Note: When migrating a virtual machine across vCenter instances, an equivalent disk is created in the target vCenter and disk can be either a normal disk or FCD. Regardless of the outcome, VMware Aria Automation continues to identify the newly created disk as a FCD after reconciliation.
    Migration type Resize Resize Boot Disk Resize Disk Add Disk
    Migrated in the same vCenter Supported Supported Supported. Supported
    Migrated across vCenter instances Supported Supported Supported. Resizes the FCD which is now associated with the new disk created in the target vCenter. The disk file is updated to point to the new location. Not supported.

Migration process and reconciliation

  1. Log in to the vSphere Client.
  2. Select the virtual machine you want migrate.
  3. Expand the Actions drop-down and select Migrate.
  4. Select the relevant migration type for your use case.
    Note: To migrate a virtual machine across vCenter instances, select Cross vCenter Server export.
  5. Configure the remaining migration options by selecting a compute resource, storage, network, and vMotion priority.
    Note: For migrations across vCenter instances, you must also provide the required details of the target vCenter.
  6. To begin the migration, click Finish.
  7. Log in to Automation Assembler.
  8. Navigate to Resources > Deployments and select the cloud template where your virtual machine is used.
  9. Select the virtual machine and expand the Custom properties section drop-down.
  10. The migrationStatus custom property displays the current status of the migration. The possible values of the property can be STARTED, SUCCESS, or FAILED, depending on the current progress and outcome of the migration.
  11. The migrationMessage custom property can display messages relevant to the migration. For successful migrations, this property is empty. If the migration encounters an error, this property displays a message associated with the specific error.
  12. After the migration finishes successfully, the changes to the virtual machine are now visible in the cloud template.
    Note: For example, if you migrated the virtual machine to a new host, this change is now reflected in the Compute host property under the General drop-down.