Questions[vmotion](server)

I have a VM (2008 R2, running SQL) that sits on a dedicated VLAN 70 that sits behind my TMG firewall. There is also a small CentOS web server that sits in the same DMZ, usually on the same ESXi box.

When I do a vMotion of the SQL box there is no network response.

When I do a vMotion for the web server everything works exactly as expected. I am in the process of creating a clone so I can experiment with this behavior but I am at a loss as to why this behavior is occurring or how to debug.

Where should I look?

We have had some issues with our Linux guests, especially CentOS 5 and 6, on our VMware ESXi 4.1 cluster during times of vmotion events. For example, after a vmotion migration, our CentOS hosts appear to be powered on, but you cannot access them or interact with them inside of the console in VCenter. I was curious what the requirements are for the guest VM configuration in order to make this successful. Does one need to have VMware Tools installed for all of the Linux guests to allow vmotion to work? We have VMware tools installed on all of our Windows guests and none of our Linux guests right now.

I need to migrate a bunch of VMs from one ESX 3.5 Cluster to another. Storage needs to be migrated from one iSCSI SAN to another, as well as the VMs.

Hosts on Cluster A have access to one iSCSI SAN but not the destination. Hosts on Cluster B have access to both SANs.

Manually I can do this by powering down a VM, doing the migration with the storage specified to migrate as well, then powering up the VM in the new cluster.

I know I can do this with multiple scheduled tasks, but the power on task cannot tell whether the migration has completed. I'd have to guess the appropriate times.

How can I create a scheduled task that will do all this, with each step waiting till the preceding one has finished?

Bonus points if anyone can suggest how I can also reconfigure the Network label used by the network card of the VM as part of the scheduled task - the new cluster has the port groups named differently, so I am not sure the VM will connect to the new Port Group correctly after migration completes (at least the manual migration tool is flagging a potential issue here).

we are in a process to purchase a virtualized solution from HP (c-3000,HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module, HP BL 460 G6, SB-40 with PVA ).

my concern is the following: assume i have virtual machines like DNS , WEB and Email which is distributed between 4 ESX Hosts, configured to have a Public IP address and vMotion is enabled with DRS, HA. now one or multiple of these are vMotioned to different ESX host.

1. how to guarantee that the network profile is also moving with the vMotion? i believe if the network profile (Public IP and other virtual nic configuration for that virtual machine ) didn't move as well then those public servers will lose thier functionality and will appear as if they were down.
2. does HP virtual connect switch have the ability to do this or we need to consider other elements?

Thanks

Today I vmotioned 5 MS SQL 2005 servers over to a new DRS Cluster. All SQL servers use the "Production_LAN" network and a single virtual NIC of type "VMXNET 3".

The first 4 SQL VM (Windows 2003 Standard or Enterprise x32 bit) vmotioned over without a hitch.

The last SQL VM I vmotioned (Windows 2003 Standard x64 bit R2) vmotioned over without error, but I upon completion, I could no longer ping the VM. I went into the VM and could not even ping the gateway, however I could ping the loopback. This SQL server is extremely busy in comparison with the previous 4 VM's. I restarted the server and it came back up with the virtual nic working just fine.

The build of both servers (vmotioner and vmotionee) is ESX 4.0.0 175625 - So, pre-update 1.

Should I suspect the network switch/VM for possibly not updating the mac table on the switch?

Anybody else ever have this issue or know what may have caused it?

Thank you!