Create a migration

Configure a new migration to replicate the workload from one site to another. After a successful replication, you can migrate the workload to a remote site for running it in the destination site.
  • Verify that
    VMware Cloud Director Availability
    4.5 or later is deployed for selecting a sizing compute policy.
  • Verify that you can access
    VMware Cloud Director Availability
    as a tenant or as a service provider. For more information, see Accessing VMware Cloud Director Availability.
The target recovery point objective (RPO) for a migration always is 24 hours. For information about the RPO, see Replicating workloads.
  1. In the left pane, choose a replication direction by clicking
    Incoming Replications
    or
    Outgoing Replications
    .
    • Alternatively, from the on-premises
      vSphere Client
      either under the
      Hosts and Clusters
      or under the
      VMs and Templates
      inventories, right-click the virtual machine or from the
      Actions
      menu select:
      • Configure Protection
      • Configure Migration
      • Fast Migration
  2. After selecting the replication direction, initiate creating a new migration.
    • To configure the migration with all migration settings, click
      All Actions
      New migration
      .
    • Alternatively, for one-click migration while skipping the settings, click
      All Actions
      Fast migration
      .
      vSphere
      DR and migration between
      vCenter Server
      sites do not allow one-click migration.
    One-click migration requires only selecting the source workloads for migration, skipping the migration settings configuration and allowing finishing the replication wizard or navigating back for configuring the settings.
  3. To create the migration, depending on the source and destination sites complete the
    New Migration
    wizard.
    • For on-premises site as source:
      • On the
        Source VMs
        page, select the source virtual machines, then click
        Next
        .
        For cloud site backed by
        VMware Cloud Director
        as destination, optionally activate the
        Group VMs to a single vApp
        toggle.
      • On the
        vApp Settings
        page that shows after activating the
        Group VMs to a single vApp
        toggle from the
        Source VMs
        page, if you enter the vApp name of an already existing vApp replication the selected virtual machines become part of that replication. Optionally, when migrating multiple virtual machines change their order of boot by dragging each row and set optional boot delay between each replicated virtual machine in the resulting vApp, then click
        Next
        .
    • For cloud site backed by
      VMware Cloud Director
      as source:
      • On the
        Source VMs and vApps
        page, select the source workloads, then click
        Next
        .
    • For
      vSphere
      DR and migration from
      vCenter Server
      site to
      vCenter Server
      site as destination:
      • On the
        Datastore
        page, select the destination datastore for placing the recovered workloads, then click
        Next
        .
    • For cloud site backed by
      VMware Cloud Director
      as destination:
      • On the
        Destination VDC and Storage policy
        page, select the destination virtual data center and the storage policy for placing the recovered workloads, then click
        Next
        .
      For seed vApps and virtual machines, the
      Replicator Service
      uses the storage policy of the seed.
      For VDCs that do not have replications to them, the
      Quota
      column shows
      Currently unavailable
      , and refreshes once every 10 minutes.
    • On the
      Settings
      page, configure the following migration settings depending on the source and destination sites, then click
      Next
      .
      One-click
      Fast migration
      skips the
      Settings
      page directly to the
      Ready to complete
      page. To configure the migration settings, click the
      Settings
      page, or alternatively, click
      Back
      .
    Compress replication traffic
    For an incoming migration to an on-premises site, to apply compression on the replication data traffic and reduce the network data traffic at the expense of CPU, leave this toggle activated.
    Disk Provisioning
    For
    vSphere
    DR and migration between
    vCenter Server
    sites, select one of the following provisioning formats for the destination disk:
    • Thin Provision
    • Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed
    • Thick Provision Eager Zeroed
    For information about the disk provisioning, see Replicating Thin or Thick Provisioning Virtual Disks.
    Delay start synchronization
    • To start the initial synchronization when the wizard finishes, leave this toggle deactivated.
    • Alternatively, to schedule the start of the first synchronization, activate this toggle, then enter the local date and time.
    VDC policy settings
    • VDC VM placement policy
    • VDC VM sizing policy
    For a migration to a cloud site backed by
    VMware Cloud Director
    , optionally from the drop-down menus, select the organization VDC compute policies to apply on the recovered workloads. For more information, see VDC compute policies.
    If you do not select a sizing policy for the replication, then
    VMware Cloud Director
    automatically applies the system default sizing policy on the destination virtual machine.
    Exclude disks
    Optionally, to select specific hard disks of the virtual machines for replicating to the destination site and reduce the replication data network traffic, activate this toggle.
    Configure Seed VMs
    For migration to or from a cloud site backed by
    VMware Cloud Director
    , optionally, to select a previous copy of the virtual machines in the destination site and reduce the replication data network traffic, activate this toggle.
    • On the
      Replicated Disks
      page that shows after activating the
      Exclude disks
      toggle from the
      Settings
      page, deselect the disks of the selected workload to exclude from replicating, then click
      Next
      .
    • On the
      Seed VM
      page, that shows after activating the
      Configure Seed VMs
      toggle from the
      Settings
      page, select a vApp or a virtual machine as a replication seed, then click
      Next
      .
    • On the
      Ready to complete
      page, verify that the migration settings are correct, then click
      Finish
      .
      One-click migration, once used, skips the migration settings configuration. You can still configure the migration settings, by clicking the
      Settings
      page, or alternatively, by clicking
      Back
      .
After completing the wizard, in the Replication type column for this replication, you see a
Migration
state.
You can migrate, or test, or fail over the workload to the destination site. For more information, see Migrate a replication or Test failover a replication or Failover of a replication.