VMware migration tool: we need your feedback!

neologic

Hello Olivier

Min value is deactivated and not changeable via GUI.

However, I found out, that the static max value can be changed below the currently set static min value. (looks a bit strange to me?)

Example:
before change
=> min 8GB max 8GB
change max value via GUI to 4GB
after change
=> min 4GB max 4GB
Then change the max value to 8GB again.
=> min 4GB max 8GB

Best regards
Thomas

olivierlambert

Yes, because there's no reason to modify the static min. I was asking why are you trying to change the whole range via the CLI.

But first, what do you want to achieve functionally speaking?

neologic

To be able to start with dynamic memory at 4GB (min max) for the Windows Guest.
And then if needed, to be able, to expand to 8GB (min max) on the fly.
However, it seems, that the Windows Guest (2022 Server) always sees static max correct?

olivierlambert

Do you really need dynamic memory? I would prefer to avoid it if you can. Each migration will deflate the VM to the dynamic min, which is a cause of a lot of crashes and migration issues (if not taken into account, eg dynamic too low vs current usage). Keep it with static as far as possible.

neologic

Ok. Thank you for the advise.
Will follow as recommended.
Best regards

Riven

Any plans to check how many vNICs there are and allow us to map each one correctly.

All of our vmware VMs have multiple vNICs and are in different port-groups.

Its not a major hassle to change them post-migration - just a nice-to-have.

olivierlambert

You mean to map each VIF to each Network of your choice?

Riven

@olivierlambert - Yes, so when we do a V2V there is only 1 VIF listed to put the migrated VIFs in to, even if the VM has 5 VIFs

Is it possible to query each vmx and allow us to select a 'network' for each VIF that it has?

olivierlambert

Question for @florent

florent

@Riven said in VMware migration tool: we need your feedback!:

@olivierlambert - Yes, so when we do a V2V there is only 1 VIF listed to put the migrated VIFs in to, even if the VM has 5 VIFs

Is it possible to query each vmx and allow us to select a 'network' for each VIF that it has?

not for now

rtjdamen

@olivierlambert I wanted to comment on this topic, we have migrated around 450 vms in 3 months using this feature, it really was a game changer and without it we were never able to make the step to XCP-NG. during the migration process we saw the feature being improved, overall speed and reliability were great. Compliments on this feature and i think it will help a lot of future customers migrating to XCP-NG.

tcp_len

Migration fails, here is the raw log;

{
  "id": "0lxdi3kqv",
  "properties": {
    "name": "importing vms 14",
    "userId": "9045a9e7-f9b2-44fd-81e9-02c1ea88b37b",
    "total": 1,
    "done": 0,
    "progress": 0
  },
  "start": 1718297723335,
  "status": "interrupted",
  "updatedAt": 1718298405138,
  "tasks": [
    {
      "id": "c3bsox2ydxp",
      "properties": {
        "name": "importing vm 14"
      },
      "start": 1718297723339,
      "status": "pending",
      "tasks": [
        {
          "id": "lvtzb0k3sc9",
          "properties": {
            "name": "connecting to 10.x.x.12"
          },
          "start": 1718297723341,
          "status": "success",
          "end": 1718297723756,
          "result": {
            "_events": {},
            "_eventsCount": 0
          }
        },
        {
          "id": "n6tsha4ebu",
          "properties": {
            "name": "get metadata of 14"
          },
          "start": 1718297723756,
          "status": "pending"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Danp

@tcp_len We recently released a Vmware migration checklist that you can view here -- https://help.vates.tech/kb/en-us/37/133

Frankly, that log doesn't give us much to go on so you will need to provide more details if you want further assistance, ie:

ESXi version
Type of datastore
Version of XOA or current commit if using XO from sources
XCP host version; fully patched?
Warm or cold migration?
Does the VM have any snapshots?
etc

tcp_len

@Danp

ESXI version 6.5
Data Store - VMFS5
XOA
XCP - Welcome To XCP-Ng 8.2.1
Cold Migraration
No Snapshots

From the checklist posted, I should uninstall the Vmware tools before I attempt migration as well as run #yum update on the XCP host.

andyh

Could anyone explain what we should be setting for 'Original Template' in the Import VM screen ?

Selecting a template appears to create a new empty VM with no apparent attempt to perform the migration.

Using Xen Orchestra from Sources (commit 636c8) against an ESXi 5.1 host, via an nginx reverse proxy (to work around legacy ciphers).

Danp

@andyh This is intended for you to select the template that best represents the source VM. If you are migrating a Debian VM, then pick the Debian option that best matches the source VM.

I'm unsure about compatibility with an ESXi version that one. Do you get any error messages or have you checked the XO logs?

andyh

@Danp No error messages and nothing in either Settings - Logs or via the CLI (journalctl)

It could be due to the age of the ESXi host or the fact I am using a reverse SSL proxy to cope with the legacy ciphers.

I'll look to export the VMs as OVA's and import that way.

probain

The address field doesn't trim trailing whitespace. Not a big deal breaker. But it did take me a couple of minutes until I found out why my copy/paste address was giving me errors

andyh

@danp
I was having a similar issue with OVA imports (using Chrome), tried a different browser (Firefox) and was able to import the OVA.

Went back to the reverse proxy and tried in Firefox, I currently have two VMs importing directly from VMware

katapaltes

Greetings. Don't know if Vates is still monitoring this thread, but I've noticed an interesting edge case with the Migration tool where imports fail: When "Native Snapshots" are enabled. (Forgive me if this has been discussed above.)

We are investigating moving our Citrix servers from vSphere 8.0/ESXi 7.0 to XO/XCP-NG 8.3, and both products work very well with Citrix. In our current VMware environment, we take advantage of the VMware VAAI API which provides instant clones and "Native NetApp Snapshots," both of which are pretty awesome. (That is one thing I'll truly miss in any transition from VMware to XCP-NG.) I noticed that when Native Snapshots are enabled on a VM (by installing a NetApp-supplied .VIB on the ESXi hosts, setting some variables on the NetApp, and setting snapshot.alwaysAllowNative=TRUE on the VMs) the import from VMware to XCP-NG fails. When I disable Native Snapshots, the import succeeds.

Note: By "succeeds," I mean that the entire import process runs and the VM appears in XO/XCP-NG Center. By "fail," I mean that the process runs and no VM appears in XO/XCP-NG and the disk images that were being created in the target Storage Repository simply disappear. We're running XO d7e64 at the moment.