Move Virtual Machine Action

How the Action Works

When you initiate this action, the

Move VM

wizard opens and scopes the possible destinations. You select the destination host and datastore from the list of available destinations.

To see all destinations, you must have view access to the following object types:

Scope object, which includes a

vCenter Server

, data center, custom data center, or cluster.

Host in the scope object.

Datastore in the host.

The destinations include combinations of objects for the move, such as a specific host and datastore, or a different host with the same datastore. You select one of the available combinations. If your environment includes many destination objects, such as many hosts or datastores, enter text in the filter text box to search for specific destination objects.

The

All Filters

option helps you to move the VM according to the following action option:

Destination Host

Destination Datastore

Will it Fit

VM PowerOff Required

Affinity Rules

VMware Aria Operations

uses

vSphere

DRS rules that you define in

vCenter Server

to help determine good placement decisions for your virtual machines in the move action. The Affinity Rules column indicates whether those rules are violated by the Move VM action.

Do not attempt to move virtual machines that are members of a vApp, because the vApp can become nonfunctional. Instead, add affinity rules for these virtual machines to keep them together so that the Move VM and Rebalance Container actions will ignore them.

To initiate the action, you click the

Begin Action

button.

When you finish the wizard,

VMware Aria Operations

displays a dialog box to indicate that the action has started. To track the status of the action, click the link in the dialog box and view the state of the action in

Administration

Recent Tasks

.

Moving Virtual Machines is Not Allowed Across Data Centers

When you attempt to use the

Move VM

action to move a virtual machine across data centers,

VMware Aria Operations

must be able to identify the matching network and storage objects for the destination data center. Network objects include VMware virtual switches and distributed virtual switches. Storage objects include datastores and datastore clusters.

Moving a virtual machine across data centers requires

VMware Aria Operations

to move the virtual machine files and change the virtual machine network configuration.

VMware Aria Operations

does not currently move the virtual machine files across datastores, nor does it change the virtual machine network configuration. As a result,

VMware Aria Operations

does not allow you to move virtual machines across data centers.

When you use the

Move VM

action, be aware of the following behavior:

If you select a single virtual machine,

VMware Aria Operations

displays the data center where the virtual machine resides.

If you select multiple virtual machines, but those virtual machines do not share a common data center, the

Move VM

action does not display the data centers, and the

Move VM

action does not appear in the actions menu.

Where You Run the Action

For the supported objects and object levels, this action is available in the following locations in

VMware Aria Operations

:

Embedded just below the top menu.

On the toolbar when you click

Environment

in the menu, select an object, click the

Details

tab and click

Views

.

On the toolbar when you click

Environment

in the menu, select an object, click the

Environment

tab, and select an object in the list view.

In the Inventory list when you click

Administration

in the menu, click

Inventory

, then click the

List

tab, and select an object in the list.

In configured alert recommendations.

In the Object List and Topology Graph dashboard widgets.

Action Options

Review the following information about the virtual machines to ensure that you are submitting the action for the correct objects.

Option	Description
Priority	Indicates the priority of the proposed move destination. When the action is automated, the proposed destination with priority of 1 is automatically selected.
Destination Host	Name of the host to which the virtual machine will be moved.
Current CPU Workload	Amount of CPU in GHz available on the host.
Current Memory Workload	Amount of memory in GB available on the host.
Destination Datastore	Datastore to which the virtual machines storage will be moved.
Current Disk Space Workload	Amount of disk space available on the datastore.
Will it fit	Calculated estimation of whether the virtual machine fits on the selected destination.
VM Power Off Required	When set to No , the action does not power off the virtual machine before the move. When set to Yes , the action powers off the virtual machine before the move takes place, and powers on the virtual machine after the move is complete. If VMware Tools is installed, a guest OS shutdown is used to power off the virtual machine.
Affinity Rules	Indicates whether vSphere DRS rules exist, as defined in vCenter Server . For example, a rule might exist to keep virtual machines together, and another rule might exist to separate virtual machines. This column indicates the following status. Empty. vSphere DRS rules are not defined. Green check mark. The move of virtual machines does not violate affinity rules. Red circle with bar. The move of virtual machines does break affinity rules. If you choose to break the affinity rules, you must resolve any problems manually.
Affinity Rule Details	Identifies the virtual machine and the vSphere DRS rule name as defined in vCenter Server .

After you click

OK

, the next dialog box provides the task ID and a link to the task list.

Task ID Dialog Box
Option	Description
Recent Tasks	To view the status of the job and verify that the job finished, click Recent Tasks .
OK	To close the dialog box without further action, click OK .

VMware Aria Operations 8.17.1

Move Virtual Machine Action

How the Action Works

Moving Virtual Machines is Not Allowed Across Data Centers

Where You Run the Action

Action Options