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Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
https://3parug.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=683		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Brett_R [ Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:11 am ]
Post subject:  Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
Hi,

Title says it all really.
I have a virtual Service Processor (v 4.1.0 MU2 with P009) and I wish to move it from one ESX host to another. Both ESX hosts are in the same subnet.

However, when I try to bring up the virtual SP on the second host it fails on boot with network errors...and once it does come up it has no network. I see this error displayed:

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Bring it back up on the first host and it's OK again.
Other VMs on the second host have network access fine, it's just this SP.

Why does it do this? Is moving between hosts not supported? It it possible to fix it without having to call HP or rebuild the SP?

Thanks

Brett_R
Author:  Darking [ Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
There should not be any issues moving the vm to another host.

To me it sounds like you may have some sort of naming difference in your vswitch setup on the hosts. If say you have a server vswitch on hostA that's named "servers" and on HostB it's called "server" the vm will not have its nic correctly mapped.

I've also seen vms where the network comes up in unconnected fashion.

Check the vm properties
Author:  Brett_R [ Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
Thanks, but as far as I can tell the network setups are the same between the hosts.

They are both called 'vSwitch0', on vLan0 and both with a network label of 'VM Network'. Imaginative, I know.
The NICs between the two hosts are different - one is Broadcom, the other Intel - but my understanding of ESX is that would make no difference as the VMs use ESXs network driver and not their own...or am I very wrong about that?

Does anyone else have any ideas at all?

If I have to rebuild the server, which doesn't look too hard judging from HPs documentation, will I need to get HP involved or should it just work once I 'point' it at the 3PAR?

Cheers


Brett.
Author:  Josh26 [ Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
How exactly did you "migrate" the SP?

The message you described seemed to suggest it believed it has been cloned, wherein eth0 would disappear and the working NIC would be come the unconfigured eth1.
Author:  Brett_R [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
Yes Josh26, that's more or less right.

I work in a managed hosting environment. We have a customer who was not sold (nor did they ask for at the time) a service processor with their shiny new 3par. An oversight on someones part, to be sure. However, we decided a virtual SP would be fine and so stood one up on their existing ESX enviroment. Well, HP came in and did it...but it all worked fine.

But for various reasons we have to move it from it's existing ESX host to another standalone one. This new host has been purpose built to run the SP, the System Reporter VM as well as a generic 2008 R2 monitoring VM. The latter two servers work fine.

The SP was not migrated as such, but exported / imported due to the fact that the two hosts are not part of the same cluster and vMotion was therefore not an applicable strategy. The second host is physically plugged into the same switch as the first, and has the same network parameters.

Is there any way I can change the network config back to eth0? Is there anyway I can even check the config?

Alternatively, if I were to rebuild the SP then would that
a. require HP to come in and do it for me?
b. mess up any existing conenctions or data I/O to the 3par?

And while I am am asking questions...what does the SP actually do? Because to my untrained eye, it simply looks like a glorified error reporter / software updater...does it really take a whole server to do that?

Thank everyone


Brett_R
Author:  afidel [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
You can answer the question saying you moved it and it shouldn't assign the NIC to a new MAC. Alternatively you could temporarily use the demo license to add this node to your cluster, move the VM to it, then remove it from the cluster.
Author:  Josh26 [ Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
Brett_R wrote:
We have a customer who was not sold (nor did they ask for at the time) a service processor with their shiny new 3par. An oversight on someones part, to be sure.

...

Alternatively, if I were to rebuild the SP then would that
a. require HP to come in and do it for me?
b. mess up any existing conenctions or data I/O to the 3par?



I wouldn't call it an oversight. The VSP is free, and makes far more sense than a physical SP.

You're pretty much right - it's a glorified reporting and management server. That makes a whole physical server sound even more silly, hence a lowly resourced VM sitting amongst all your others would be the place for it.

Nothing you do to the SP itself will impact on customer data or interrupt IO, however, if you rebuild it, you'll likely need HP to manage that interaction.
Author:  Brett_R [ Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
Yes, I think an HP-guided rebuild will be the best option here. I was hoping to avoid the hassle of contacting HP...it's always painful...but no option really this time.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.


Brett
Author:  borkowski [ Mon May 05, 2014 3:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
In the vSphere 5.1 and 5.5 web client, there is an option to export a VM to OVA/OVF while keeping VM's UUID and MAC address. I'm guessing that in this way SP wouldn't complain about eth0 after export/import.

Also, if SP is on a shared datastore, you could present this datastore to both the source and destination hosts, shutdown the VM, remove it from source host's inventory, add it to destination host's inventory, power on and answer "I moved it" when asked the VM question. In this way, MAC address and UUID will also be retained.
Author:  bigiron [ Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Can you migrate a virtual SP between hosts?
I was able to migrate a vSP (version is 4.1.0.GA-78) using "method 2" from this VMware guide https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/micro ... Id=2035707

Source is ESXi 5.1.0 to ESXi 6.5.0.

First, export the VM as an OVF template and deploy the OVF to the new host. This way, you don't screw around with your original vSP.
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