Skip to main content
ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10

Considerations to migrate or clone virtual machines

Contributors netapp-jani
PDFs

You should be aware of some of the considerations while migrating existing virtual machines in your data center.

Migrate protected virtual machines

You can migrate the protected virtual machines to:

  • Same vVols datastore in a different ESXi host

  • Different compatible vVols datastore in same ESXi host

  • Different compatible vVols datastore in a different ESXi host

If you migrate the virtual machine to a different FlexVol volume, the system updates the metadata file for that volume with the virtual machine information. If a virtual machine is migrated to a different ESXi host but same storage, then underlying FlexVol volume metadata file will not be modified.

Clone protected virtual machines

You can clone protected virtual machines to the following:

  • Same container of same FlexVol volume using replication group

    Same FlexVol volume's metadata file is updated with the cloned virtual machine details.

  • Same container of a different FlexVol volume using replication group

    The FlexVol volume where the cloned virtual machine is placed, the metadata file gets updated with the cloned virtual machine details.

  • Different container or vVols datastore

    The FlexVol volume where the cloned virtual machine is placed, the metadata file gets updated virtual machine details.

VMware presently doesn't support virtual machines cloned to a VM template.

Clone-of-Clone of a protected virtual machine is supported.

Refer to Creating a Virtual Machine for Cloning for more details.

Virtual Machine Snapshots

Presently only virtual machine Snapshots without memory are supported. If virtual machine has Snapshot with memory, then the virtual machine is not considered for protection.

You also cannot protect unprotected virtual machines that have memory Snapshot. For this release, you're expected to delete memory snapshot before enabling protection for the virtual machine.

For a Windows VM with the ASA r2 storage type, a snapshot of the virtual machine is read-only. When you power on the VM, VASA Provider creates a LUN from the read-only snapshot and enables IOPS. When you power off the VM, VASA Provider deletes the LUN and disables IOPS.