Migrate an external VM to CAS
Perform this task to migrate a VMware VM to CAS. The migration does not require any agents and features short service interruption time.
Prerequisites
Make sure the VMware VM does not use any independent-persistent or independent-nonpersistent disks.
To migrate the VMware VM while it is online, make sure it is installed with VMware tools.
Make sure the host to which the VMware VM belongs uses ESX/ESXi 4.0 or higher.
Make sure the hardware version of the VMware VM is 7 or higher.
Make sure the VMware vCenter version is vCenter6.0, vCenter6.5, vCenter6.7, or vCenter7.0.
Make sure the vCenter is accessible on port 443, and the ESXi host is accessible on port 902.
Make sure the VMware VM does not use an SR-IOV passthrough NIC.
A VM in VMware vCenter 6.0 cannot be migrated to CAS if the VM uses NFS. To migrate such a VM to CAS, you must first change its storage to VMFS on VMware.
Restrictions and guidelines
A VMware VM cannot be migrated to CAS if it uses an RDM disk in physical compatibility mode. A VMware VM can be migrated to CAS if it uses NFS or uses an RDM disk in virtual compatibility mode. A VMware VM that uses a VMFS disk can be migrated to CAS, regardless of whether the storage resources are provided by SAN, iSCSI, or a local disk.
A VM in VMware vCenter 6.0 cannot be migrated to CAS if the VM has snapshots. To resolve this issue, contact the technical support.
A VMware VM cannot be migrated to an ARM host.
To avoid migration failure, make sure the destination storage pool has sufficient space.
You must configure a network IP address for a VMware VM after the VM is migrated to CAS.
When a VMware VM is in sleep mode, its VMware tools stops running and the VM cannot be shut down automatically, which might cause migration failure or data loss. Therefore, do not set a VMware VM to auto sleep or energy saving mode during the migration.
To avoid migration failure, do not operate a VM on VMware while the VM is being migrated to CAS.
By default, a VMware VM that uses the Windows server 2003 or Windows XP operating system uses the IDE disk bus type after it is migrated to CAS. After the migration, you must manually install CAS tools for the VM.
To migrate a VMware VM that uses the Windows server 2003 or Windows XP operating system, make sure the number of disks on the VM does not exceed four (including floppy drives and optical drives).
After a VMware VM that uses the Windows Server 2008 operating system is started (automatically or manually) for the first time after it is migrated to CAS, you must restart the VM to make the drivers run correctly.
If a VMware VM cannot be quiesced during the migration, CAS will prompt snapshot deletion failure and VMware will prompt snapshot saving and VM quiescence failures. In this scenario, quiesce the VM as instructed in the official website of VMware, and then continue the migration.
By default, a VMware VM uses the thin provisioning mode after it is migrated to CAS.
A VMware VM cannot be migrated to an RBD storage pool.
Procedure
From the left navigation pane, select Resources > External Platforms > VMware vCenter Name > Host Cluster Name
Click the
icon in the Actions column for the target external VM.
Configure the parameters as described in "Parameters."
Click Finish.
Parameters
Basic settings
Alias: Specify an alias for the VM.
Operating System: Operating system of the VM.
Version: Operating system version of the VM.
Forcibly Shutdown: With this feature enabled, the system will forcibly shut down the VM during the migration if the system fails to shut down the VM normally.
Start After Migration: Enable this feature to start the VM automatically after it is migrated.
CAStools Upgrade: Enable this feature for the system to automatically upgrade the CAStools of the VM.
Rate Limit Type: Specify the rate limit type. Options include not limited, I/O rate limit, and IOPS limit.
I/O Rate Limit (KBps): Specify the maximum I/O rate in KBps.
IOPS Limit: Specify the maximum IOPS.
Select host:
Select Host: Select the target host to which the VMware VM will be migrated.
Hardware information:
CPU: Specify the CPU sockets, which cannot exceed the number of CPUs on the host. Windows 7 supports a maximum of two CPUs. To improve processing performance, you can set multiple cores for each CPU.
CPU Cores: Specify the CPU cores. The number of CPU cores of a VM cannot exceed that of the host.
CPU Operating Mode: Select a CPU operating mode.
Compatible—Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of the same model. This mode features good migration compatibility.
Host Matching—Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of different models. This mode features bad compatibility but provides better performance for OSs of VMs than the Compatible mode.
Passthrough—Passes physical CPUs to VMs. This mode features bad compatibility but provides better performance for OSs of VMs than the Compatible and Host Matching modes. VMs with the passthrough CPU operating mode can be migrated only between hosts with the same CPU model.
Architecture: Select a CPU architecture. A 32-bit operating system supports both the 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. A 64-bit operating system supports only the 64-bit architecture. If you select the 32-bit architecture for a VM using a 64-bit operating system, the VM cannot be started.
Schedule Priority: Select a priority for the processes on the VM to preempt physical CPU resources.
Reserve: Enter the CPU size of the host to reserve for the VM.
Limit: Enter the maximum host CPU frequency that a single CPU core of the VM can use.
Overall CPU Limit: Select whether to enable overall CPU limit. For example, if you set maximum host CPU frequency that a single CPU core can use to 2 GHz and enable overall CPU limit for a VM that has 4 CPU cores, the maximum host CPU frequency is 8 GHz for both the VM and a single CPU core of the VM.
Online Scale Down: Select whether to enable online CPU scale-down. A VM supports online CPU scale-down only when its operating system supports online CPU scale-down.
Online Scale Up: Select whether to enable online CPU scale-up. A VM supports online CPU scale-up only when its operating system supports online CPU scale-up.
I/O Priority: Select an I/O priority for the processes on the VM to read/write the disk.
Memory: Specify the memory size. The memory size is the memory size of the VM OS. The maximum memory size available for the VM depends on the physical memory size.
Reserve: Enter the memory size to be reserved for the VM to the total available memory size of the host in percentage. The host allocates specific memory to a VM based on the actual memory usage of the VM. You can reserve memory for a VM in case the VM needs more memory after the host memory is exhausted.
Limit: Enter the maximum host memory size that the VM can use.
Resource Priority: Select the priority for the VM to request memory resources.
Ballooning: Select whether to enable ballooning. With ballooning enabled, the system dynamically allocates host memory to VMs without shutting down VMs.
HugePages: Select whether to enable VMs to use HugePages memory of hosts. You can turn on this option only if the HugePages feature is enabled on the host. HugePages memory is mutually exclusive with memory reservation, memory limit, resource priority, and ballooning.
Network: Select a virtual switch for the VM.
Port Profile: Select a port profile for the VM. A port profile defines the VLAN, ACL, and network bandwidth settings for a VM.
Virtual Firewall: Select a virtual firewall for the VM. The incoming and outgoing data packets of the VM will be filtered based on the firewall rules.
NIC Type: Select a NIC type. High-speed NICs are driven by CVK. If you select High-Speed NIC, fast forwarding is enabled by default. If you select SR-IOV Passthrough NIC, you must specify a driver type and VLAN ID.
Driver Type: Select a driver type for the SR-IOV passthrough NIC.
Bound IPv4/IPv6 Address: Enter the IP address bound to the MAC address of the VM’s NIC. If the IP address specified for the VM's NIC is different from the bound IP address, the NIC cannot communicate correctly.
MAC Assignment: Select a MAC address assignment mode.
VLAN ID: Specify a VLAN ID for the VM NIC. This parameter is available only when the NIC type is SR-IOV Passthrough NIC.
Fast Forwarding: Enable fast forwarding to improve the network performance of the VM. This feature is available only for high-speed NICs.
Queue Number: Set the number of queues for the virtual NIC. Multi-queue support can enhance data processing performance for the virtual NIC. The default value is 1, and the maximum value is the vCPU count × cores. This parameter is available for high-speed NICs with fast forwarding enabled.
Hot Pluggable:
MTU: Set the MTU of the VM's NIC. This parameter is applicable only to common, high-speed, and Intel e1000 NICs.
Disk: Configure the storage volume used as the VM disk and the storage pool to which the storage volume belongs.
Type: Disk type of the VM, which can only be New File. An empty virtual disk file based on the file system will be created as the disk of the VM. Disk files are easy to manage.
Storage Pool: Select the target storage pool of the new disk.
File Name: Enter the file name of the disk if a new file is used as the disk. Select a disk format. The raw format provides high I/O efficiency.
Provision: Select a storage volume provision mode. This parameter is available only when the disk type is New File.
Thin—Allocates only as much storage space as the storage volume needs for its initial operations when the storage volume is created. If the storage volume needs more storage space later, you can allocate as much storage space as the volume would require based on the specified maximum storage size.
Lazy Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on first write from the VM.
Eager Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take a longer time to create storage volumes in this format than to create storage volumes of other formats.
Disk Cluster Size: Set the smallest amount of disk space that can be used to store a file. If a file is larger than a disk cluster, it is stored in multiple disk clusters. If a file is smaller than a disk cluster, it is stored in a dedicated disk cluster. A shared file system is mainly used to store VM image files. As a best practice, set the value of this parameter as large as possible to enhance disk read performance and save disk space. You must configure this parameter when you add an intelligent disk.
Bus Type: Select a bus type.
Cache Mode: Select a cache mode for VM storage files.
Directsync—The system reads data from the physical disk. By default, the cache mode is directsync when the disk format is qcow2.
Writethrough—The system writes data to the host cache, and then to the physical disk.
Writeback—The system writes data to the VM cache, then to the host cache, and finally to the physical disk.
None—The system writes data to the VM cache, and then to the physical disk. By default, the cache mode is none when the disk format is raw or block (including RBD).
Disk Mode: Select whether to include the VM's disk in external snapshots. This parameter is available only when the VM uses a file-type disk.
Dependent—Includes the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is also restored.
Independent-Persistent——Does not include the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is not restored.
Serial Number: Enter the serial number of the disk.
Floppy Disk: Select a floppy disk. The system will automatically load the high-speed driver compatible with the selected OS version.
CD-ROM: Select a CD/DVD or image file. To avoid migration failure when the destination host does not have a physical CD-ROM drive, unmount the physical CD-ROM drive from a VM after the VM finishes using that drive.