Live migration (from Vmware7 to hypver v 2022)

[osi-rs]

Hi

We are planning to do a migration for our biggest vm (1 os, 4 additional drives totaling 6 TB) using live migration. Other migration for small vm (less than 100GB went smooth,single drive).
Since v2v is single threaded this will likely take significant time. I also understand the cutover needs to happen manually if its live migration.
What I am trying to understand when is the exact time i should do the cutover to minimize the downtime. We are OK for couple of hours of downtime, say shutdown old VM at 95% progress of conversion? But a guidance on this is appreciated.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Welcome to StarWind Forum! Yes, shutting down the VM a the very end of conversion should do the trick!
What I am also thinking is that you should try converting the VM into a template and then deploying it
Another way could be
1. Deploy a fresh VM on ESXi.
2. Expose the disks over the network.
3. Mount them on the source.
4. Use software like Macrium Reflect to copy.

Good luck with your project.

[osi-rs]

Thanks for the answers. I am going to test both methods and see which one suites our need.

Also i am using a small VM (75GB space) to run the migration tool, does that mean the VM/server that is running the V2V convertor must have the size needed to hold the migrating VM's data or is it transferred directly to the destination host's storage thereby my small VM running V2V is just a pass-through for the data?

is the scenario different for offline migration and live migration?

[yaroslav (staff)]

Hi,

You are welcome! The storage on that VM is not consumed by the conversion.

[osi-rs]

Thanks for the response. I tested live migration for couple of VM's and they went without issues.
However since today I am facing a new challenge.

Upon searching i found about session timeout setting in vmware (which i did not face before during live migration) to disable.
But even after the change the live migration is still failing.

Also tried updating to latest version but did not help.
Is there something I am missing?

[yaroslav (staff)]

Hi,

There's a known issue with live conversions. You might need to shut down the VM or try P2V conversion.

[osi-rs]

I see that there is new release out v 9.0.757. Is there a changelog for the new version?
Looking to see if live migration is fixed!

Thanks!

[yaroslav (staff)]

Give it a try, it should be.

[osi-rs]

Tried the latest and the live migration (vmware 7 to hyper v) is failing as the Application now crashes half way during step 1 of migration process.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Thanks for reporting. Could you please share the logs?

[osi-rs]

Since i was testing, i did not retain logs and removed v2v right away and downgraded back to .755 version.
I can possibly run another test in next couple of days. Is there a private method i can share the log?

[yaroslav (staff)]

Hi,

Sure https://www.starwindsoftware.com/support-form. Please use the 1334753 case for a reference.
Thanks again!

[hyperoverload]

In an attempt to continue this thread, moving from ESXi 8.0u3 latest patch. Migrating vm to HyperV running on Server 2022. Launch the converter, copies about 60GB of data for the C: drive and then has a memory error and crashes. Here is the log: I tried to scrub any mildly forbiden text that is being flagged for contact details.

6/18 18:46:10.729 2e54 Facility ???INFO: CPPConverting::ConvertDisks: CreateInputImage: 0
6/18 18:46:11.479 2e54 Facility ???INFO: CPPConverting::ConvertDisks: CreateOutputImage: 0
6/18 18:49:37.215 82c Facility ???INFO: VMConverter::ESXIConverter::Connection::<lambda_51a4e26504ac6476d417d538947b592f>::operator (): Timeout ESX connection. Performing updates.
6/18 18:54:37.229 82c Facility ???INFO: VMConverter::ESXIConverter::Connection::<lambda_51a4e26504ac6476d417d538947b592f>::operator (): Timeout ESX connection. Performing updates.
6/18 18:59:37.230 82c Facility ???INFO: VMConverter::ESXIConverter::Connection::<lambda_51a4e26504ac6476d417d538947b592f>::operator (): Timeout ESX connection. Performing updates.
6/18 19:04:37.244 82c Facility ???INFO: VMConverter::ESXIConverter::Connection::<lambda_51a4e26504ac6476d417d538947b592f>::operator (): Timeout ESX connection. Performing updates.


I have tried multiple different guests, same end result. I had the hyperv host in a dfferent vlan, changed that, they are sitting on the same switch, same vlan. I am going to try converting this Fipco VM again with it powered off, but I have a good few that need live convert from current vmware to 2022 hyperv. The converter is being run from the destination hyperV host, as it has an abundance of resources.

Just crashed with the same server powered off. This time, around the 70GB mark. The last line of the log everytime is the timeout ESX Connection

[yaroslav (staff)]

Thanks!

[yaroslav (staff)]

I've found this thread some time ago.
https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/vie ... php?t=6816
big thanks to robertr