Help migrating multiple vmware clusters into a single cluster.

[investinwaffles]

We're looking to move physical machines into a different cluster, basically "collapsing" or merging 3 clusters into a single cluster. The virtual machines will stay on the same server / storage.

The kicker is I dont currently have access to he Vsphere console but I need to figure out the steps needed. I also dont have a whole lot of hands-on vsphere/vmware experience but I have a good conceptual understanding.

Is there a best practice for this, and I am just slightly confused on the best way to go about this. We are going to do RAM upgrades at the same time, so shutting down the VMs and hosts is not an issue.

Since I cant get into the console yet, do I just click + drag? Or right-click and select "migrate"? Would appreciate some advice from you guys with more experience (or an actual instance of vsphere).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Wrench00]

We're looking to move physical machines into a different cluster, basically "collapsing" or merging 3 clusters into a single cluster. The virtual machines will stay on the same server / storage.

The kicker is I dont currently have access to he Vsphere console but I need to figure out the steps needed. I also dont have a whole lot of hands-on vsphere/vmware experience but I have a good conceptual understanding.

Is there a best practice for this, and I am just slightly confused on the best way to go about this. We are going to do RAM upgrades at the same time, so shutting down the VMs and hosts is not an issue.

Since I cant get into the console yet, do I just click + drag? Or right-click and select "migrate"? Would appreciate some advice from you guys with more experience (or an actual instance of vsphere).

Thanks in advance!

As long as the clusters are part of the same vcenter server (same site)it should not be an issue. Just make sure your switches are in place and appropriate datastores.

 

[geiger]

If they are on different vCenter servers you should be able to import a host into the other cluster hot. Yo will lose any folder structure/custom DRS settings though.

 

[REDYOUCH]

Right-click on the new cluster-->add host. Enter the details (hostname and root password) to add it to the new vCenter and corresponding cluster. It will supersede any preexisting cluster/vCenter membership.

Beforehand, make sure you convert your templates to virtual machines. Otherwise you will have to hunt them down on the underlying datastore and re-add to inventory.

Also, I would suggest creating an NFS share that is mounted on all ESXi servers beforehand to use as swing-space if there are problems with migrating any virtual machines. This will give you flexibility to perform Storage vMotion with zero downtime.

I would also suggest structuring your clusters into groups of ESXi servers that share the same storage, CPU architecture, and network segments. If those are fundamentally different, you may want to keep them in disjoint clusters.