Virtualization – Gibni.com

ESXI: Move VM between hosts

Here is a “how-to” to move VMs between ESXi hosts without vCenter and completely for FREE:
Here is the scenario:
We have two ESXi hosts: “esxi-old” and “esxi-new” like below:

We want our VMs (here webserver, devFactory and database) to be copied (or you may call it moved/migrated) to the “esxi-new” host.

Follow these steps carefully without skipping any:

A: On esxi-old host

Create a new user on ESXi host (I recommend for user name: ovfuser) follow this tutorial from buildvirtual.net
- WARNING: Use only alphanumeric characters in the password, else you will get an error! [REF #1]
- Assign the admin role for this ovfuser
- Remember to remove this user once all vm copy/migration […]

How to install OVFTOOL on Debian Wheezy

By Gibni|2014-07-26T13:26:55+01:00July 26th, 2014|Technology, Virtualization|

You need to download the right version (64bit or 32 bit, .bundle file) of ovftool from vmware:
Click here to download ofvtool (!) You need to register for a free vmware account.

If you have a graphical (GUI) debian wheezy, open up “Root Terminal” from accessories menu,
Browse to the directory where you downloaded the .bundle file, and execute (either as “root” user or via sudo):

/bin/sh VMware-ovftool-3.5.2-1880279-lin.x86_64.bundle

You must accept the VMware OVF Tool component for Linux End User
License Agreement to continue. Press Enter to proceed.
If you want to get to the end of the text, hold down the Space bar.
Do you agree? [yes/no]: yes
Now the “ovftool” command is present and executable on your machine.
Enjoy!