Migrating virtual machine - On Prem

Owned by John Hicks
Last updated: Nov 13, 2023 by Robert Brink
4 min read

Introduction

This guide is for performing an on-premise virtual machine migration via the Cloudist VDC user interface.

These steps are also applicable for performing migrations via the VMware Cloud Director Availability extension for your on-prem vSphere environment.

Prerequisites

You must be onboarded in the Cloudist Portal and have:

  1. A provisioned Virtual Data Center in the Cloudist VDC service

  2. Your customer/organization number

  3. Your username and password

  4. You must have deployed the Vmware Cloud Director Availability On-Premise appliance

Creating an account for DR:

  • Log in to https://portal.cloudist.se

  • Select Virtual Data Center service

  • Select the Virtual Datacenter you would like to create the account in and click the name of the Virtual Datacenter to open Cloud Director UI

  • Once the Cloud Director UI launches, go to Administration

  • Select New

  • Enter a username, password and ensure the User has the Organization Administrator role

  • Click Save

The username in this example when using DRaaS would be drservice@12345-5678 (your org number)

 Procedure

  • Select the Virtual Datacenter you would migrate to and click on the name of the Virtual Datacenter to open Cloud Director UI

  • Once logged into your VDC, click More, then Availability (SEN1-AZ1-VCDA1)

  • Go to Incoming Replications, then From On-Premises

  • Click on the New Migration cloud icon

  • Ensure Source Site and Select VMs to replicate from correspond with your correct on-prem environment

  • Select a VM to migrate and click Next

  • Choose the Cloudist VDC you would like to migrate to

  • Choose the Storage Policy the virtual machine should reside on, then click Next

  • Choose whether to

    • Delay start synchronization

    • Exclude disks

    • Configure Seed VMs

  • Click Next

  • Review the incoming replication and click Finish to begin the process

  • Observe the progress of the replication

 

Starting a Migration or Test Failover

Once the replication has completed you can begin a migration or a test failover to present the virtual machine in your target VDC.

Migration: Will act as failover operation. The source/on-prem virtual machine will be powered off

If you require to migrate tge virtual machine without affecting the source, go to All Actions, Test Failover and follow the same steps as below

  • Select the job and click on the Migrate icon (available also via All Actions menu)

  • Choose whether to

    • Consolidate VM disks

    • Power on the VM

    • Connect to a VCD network or keep preconfigured settings

 

Source VMs will be powered-off after the machine has been migrated to the VDC

  • Select Finish to complete. Observe the progress

  • Once completed, go back to Data Centers and the target VDC and find the migrated virtual machine