Server Migration Center (SMC) allows you to migrate VMware VMs without agents. This way, the migration does not modify the settings of the operating system of the migration source or occupy the computing resources of the operating system in the migration source. This can effectively eliminate your concerns about server security and performance. This topic describes how to import the information about a VMware VM by configuring a Server Migration Connector without agents.
Background information
VMware VM migration without agents has multiple benefits, such as no resource consumption, high migration efficiency, high security, and high compatibility. For more information about best practices, see Migrate VMware VMs without agents.
For more information about how to migrate incremental data from VMware VMs without agents, see Migrate incremental data from a VMware VM without an agent.
Environment requirements
The following table describes the environment requirements that vary based on the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template.
OVF template | Configurations of a Server Migration Connector | Environment requirements for deploying a Server Migration Connector on vCenter Server | Environment requirements for deploying a Server Migration Connector on VMware ESXi |
SMC VMware Connector 6.5 OVF |
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SMC VMware Connector 7.0 OVF |
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Required account permissions for vCenter Server and VMware ESXi
If you deploy a Server Migration Connector on vCenter Server, the account used to log on to VMware ESXi and the account used to log on to the VMware VM to be migrated must be granted the following permissions:
Datastore > Browse datastore
Datastore > Low-level file operations
Host > Local operations > Create virtual machine
Virtual machine > Change Configuration > Acquire disk lease
Virtual machine > Change Configuration > Toggle disk change tracking
Virtual machine > Provisioning > Allow virtual machine download
Virtual machine > Provisioning > Allow disk access
Virtual machine > Provisioning > Allow read-only disk access
Virtual machine > Snapshot management > Create snapshot
Virtual machine > Snapshot management > Remove Snapshot
If you deploy a Server Migration Connector on VMware ESXi, you must use an administrator account to log on to VMware ESXi.
Procedure
Download and extract an OVF template
Log on to the SMC console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Migration Sources.
On the Migration Sources page, click Import Migration source.
On the Import Migration source page, configure the parameters.
The following table describes the parameters.
Parameter
Description
Migration Source Type
The type of the migration source. Select VMware VM from the drop-down list.
Import Method
The method that is used to import the information about the migration source. By default, Use Server Migration Connector to Import VMware VM is selected and cannot be changed.
Description
The description of the procedure for importing the information about a migration source.
In the Description section, download an OVF template based on the version of your VMware ESXi or vCenter Server and decompress the downloaded package.
NoteIf no OVF template is available for the version of your VMware ESXi or vCenter Server, set the Migration Source Type parameter to Physical Machine/VM/Third-party Cloud Server. Then, use one of the following methods to import the information about the VMware VM to be migrated:
Deploy a Server Migration Connector
Import the extracted OVF template to your VMware ESXi or vCenter Server and deploy a Server Migration Connector by using the OVF template. A Server Migration Connector can be deployed on vCenter Server or VMware ESXi. You can select the deployment environment based on your business requirements.
(Recommended) Deploy a Server Migration Connector on vCenter Server
Import the OVF template of a Server Migration Connector to vCenter Server and deploy the Server Migration Connector by using the OVF template. In this example, vCenter Server 6.7 is used. To deploy a Server Migration Connector on vCenter Server, perform the following steps:
Log on to vCenter Server. Find the vCenter Server host, right-click the name of the host, and then select Deploy OVF Template....
On the Deploy OVF Template page, follow the configuration wizard to create a VM.
Select an OVF template and click NEXT.
Select Local file and click Browse... to select the extracted OVF template.
Specify the VM name and installation location, and click NEXT.
Enter the VM name in the Virtual machine name field and select the installation location.
Select a computing resource and click NEXT.
Confirm the template information and click NEXT.
Select the storage and click NEXT.
Select the destination network and click NEXT.
Confirm the configurations and click FINISH.
After the Server Migration Connector is deployed, right-click the Server Migration Connector and choose Power > Power On.
Configure the network environment to ensure that the Server Migration Connector can connect to port 443 of vCenter Server and port 902 of the ESXi host on which the VMware VM to be migrated resides. The preceding port numbers are the default port numbers.
On the Summary tab, obtain the IP addresses of the Server Migration Connector.
Deploy a Server Migration Connector on VMware ESXi
Import the OVF template of a Server Migration Connector to VMware ESXi and deploy the Server Migration Connector by using the OVF template. In this example, VMware ESXi 7.0 is used. To deploy a Server Migration Connector on VMware ESXi, perform the following steps:
Log on to VMware ESXi. In the left-side navigation pane, right-click Virtual Machines and select Create/Register VM.
In the Select creation type step, select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file and click Next.
In the Select OVF and VMDK files step, enter a VM name, click Click to select files or drag/drop, select the downloaded OVF template, and then click Next.
In the Select storage step, click Next.
In the Deployment options step, click Next.
In the Ready to complete step, click Finish.
Wait until the VM is deployed. The IP address of the Server Migration Connector is displayed in the General Information section. By default, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is configured in the network settings of the Server Migration Connector. You can modify the network settings based on your business requirements.
Configure the network environment to ensure that the Server Migration Connector can connect to port 443 and port 902 of VMware ESXi. The preceding port numbers are the default port numbers.
Configure the VMware VM to be migrated
Log on to the Server Migration Connector.
In this example, SSH remote connection is used. Perform the following steps:
On a terminal from which the Server Migration Connector is accessible over a network, run the following command to connect to the Server Migration Connector. The default username is
root, and the default password is left empty.ssh root@<IP address of the Server Migration Connector>ImportantFor account security, we recommend that you change your password at the earliest opportunity.
Run the following command to check whether the time on the Server Migration Connector is accurate:
dateIf the time is inaccurate, you can run the ntpdate command to calibrate the time. In this topic, the time server at
0.asia.pool.ntp.orgis used.ntpdate 0.asia.pool.ntp.org hwclock --systohcWarningIf the time is inaccurate, the information about the migration source fails to be imported.
Run the following commands to configure the VMware VM to be migrated on your vCenter Server or VMware ESXi:
NoteIn this step, you can obtain all the hosts and VMs in the environment. If you already know the names of the hosts or VMs that you want to configure, skip this step and directly specify the names of the hosts or VMs. For more information, see the How do I migrate the specified VM or a VM on the specified host by performing VMware migration without agents? section of the "FAQ" topic.
cd /root/smc ./configure.shConfigure the IP address, username, password, and port number of vCenter Server or VMware ESXi in sequence. We recommend that you use the default port 443. Sample command output:
[root@localhost ~]# cd /root/smc [root@localhost smc]# ./configure.sh Please input vCenter/ESXi IP:192.168.XX.XX Please input username:administr****@vsphere.local Please input password: Please input port number(default 443):443The "Connect success" message is displayed, and a list of hosts is generated. Enter the ID of the host on which the VMware VM to be migrated resides. You must select a host that is in the Connected state. If an asterisk (*) is displayed in the Connected column of a host, the host is connected.
Test to connect the vCenter/ESXi... Connect success! save to ./vmware_connect_config.json ========Aliyun SMC VMware Configure Tool 1.2======== Connect success! Getting host list progress: [>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>100.00%]time: 1.0s Host List: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ID Name Version Connected 1 192.168.XX.XX 6.7.0 * 2 192.168.XX.XX 7.0.3 * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please input the ID of Host(input 0 to exit):1After you enter a host ID, a list of VMs is generated. Enter the ID of the VMware VM to be migrated. You must select a VM that is in the Connected state. If an asterisk (*) is displayed in the Connected column of a VM, the VM is connected.
Test to connect 192.168.XX.XX Connect success! Getting vm list progress: [>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>100.00%]time: 2.3s VM List of 192.168.XX.XX: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ID Name Connected CBT Add 1080 test1 * 1084 win16bios * 1011 centos7-bios-2 * 3008 centos7-uefi * 2001 centos-hw10 * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please input the ID of VM to be migrated (input 0 to exit):1084Select the architecture of the VMware VM to be migrated.
-------------------------------------------------------------- 0 x86_64 1 i386 2 arm64 -------------------------------------------------------------- Please choose the architecture:0Check whether the operating system recognized by the system is the actual operating system of the current VM. If the recognized operating system is incorrect, enter n, and then enter the number that corresponds to the actual operating system in the list. For example, you can enter 10 to select the Windows Server 2016 operating system.
NoteThe preset operating system when a VM is created on vCenter Server may be incorrect. You must confirm the operating system of the VM.
Is [CentOS 7 (64-bit)]' truly the OS of VM (y or n)?n ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0 CentOS 1 Ubuntu 2 SUSE 3 OpenSUSE 4 Debian 5 RedHat 6 Others Linux 7 Windows Server 2003 8 Windows Server 2008 9 Windows Server 2012 10 Windows Server 2016 11 Windows Server 2019 12 Windows Server 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please choose the OS of VM:Select the system disk. By default, the virtual disk with the number
0is selected.-------------------------------------------------------------- 0 [datastore1] win16bios/wins16bios-000001.vmdk 1 [datastore1] wins16bios/wins16bios_1-000001.vmdk -------------------------------------------------------------- Please choose the system disk (default 0):0If an asterisk (
*) is displayed in theAddcolumn that corresponds to the VM name, the VM is added to the migration list.VM List of 192.168.XX.XX: -------------------------------------------------------------- ID Name Connected CBT Add 481 TEST_CLONE_1 * 389 win16bios * * 338 hanjun_test_001 * 386 Aliyun_SMC_Agent_6.5 * 393 win16uefi -------------------------------------------------------------- Please input the ID of VM to be migrated (input 0 to exit):0If you want to migrate multiple VMs, enter the IDs of the VMs to be migrated.
If you want to migrate only one VM, enter 0 and return to the host list. If you want to migrate VMs on other hosts, repeat the preceding steps. Otherwise, enter 0 to exit the configuration.
Optional. Run the following command to view the generated vmware_connect_config.json and vmware_migrate_config.json files:
llA command output similar to the following one is returned:
[root@localhost smc]# ll total 5588 drwxrwxrwx. 4 root root 239 Oct 17 17:27 Check -rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 6884 Oct 14 15:54 client_data -rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 151 Oct 14 17:47 configure.sh drwxrwxrwx. 2 root root 72 Nov 1 01:15 dist -rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 38878 Oct 14 15:54 EULA drwxrwxrwx. 2 root root 4096 Oct 17 17:27 Excludes -rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 5633792 Oct 31 19:43 go2aliyun_client -rwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 146 Oct 14 15:54 user_config.json -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 263 Nov 10 18:05 vmware_connect_config.json -rw-r--r--. 1 root root 18406 Nov 10 18:07 vmware_migrate_config.json
Import the information about the VMware VM to be migrated
After you log on to the Server Migration Connector, start the SMC client and import the information about the VMware VM to be migrated to the SMC console by running commands.
When the SMC client is running, do not perform operations on the VMware VM to be migrated, such as shutting down the VMware VM, restarting the VMware VM, and creating or deleting snapshots for the VMware VM. If you create or delete snapshots for the VMware VM to be migrated, the migration may fail. If the migration fails, run the ./dist/migrate_configure command in the /root/smc home directory of the SMC client to obtain the VM configurations again. Then, run the ./go2aliyun_client --jobtype=3 command to start a new SMC client.
Obtain the SMC access token or AccessKey pair.
Obtain the SMC access token: recommended. An SMC access token consists of an access token ID and an access token code. If you do not have an SMC access token, go to the Import Migration source page in the SMC console. In the Description section, click Generate and copy the generated access token ID and access token code.
Obtain the AccessKey pair: An AccessKey pair of an Alibaba Cloud account consists of an AccessKey ID and an AccessKey secret. If you have not created an AccessKey pair, create one first. For more information, see Obtain an AccessKey pair.
Log on to the Server Migration Connector and run the following commands to import the information about the VMware VM:
chmod +x ./go2aliyun_client ./go2aliyun_client --jobtype=3Enter the SMC access token or AccessKey pair as prompted. In this example, the SMC access token is used. The returned information is similar to the following content. If the
Import Source Server [s-bp14zd35128xgjdbh****] Successfullymessage is displayed, the information about the VMware VM to be migrated is imported.[root@localhost smc]# ./go2aliyun_client --jobtype=3 [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] ========= Goto Aliyun VMware Client1.2.2 ========= [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Load User Config... Please Enter Access Token Id Or Access Id: at-bp1bq6h8194dnpod**** Please Enter Access Token Code: ****************************** [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Load Client Data... [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Load VMware Connect Config... [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Load VMware Migrate Config... OS Info: Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit) CPU Info: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8269CY CPU @ 2.50GHz CPU: 4 Cores Memory: 8.00GB Hostname: WIN-5KSIG3H94RM IP Address: Mac Address: 00:50:56:b6:**:** [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Verify User Account... [2022-11-10 10:12:17] [Info] Generate SSH Key... [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] Import Source Server... [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] Import Source Server [s-bp131kz499d1e22f****] Successfully! [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] ========= Run In BackGround Daemon Mode ========= [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] Goto Aliyun Begin... [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] Check Source Server Status... [2022-11-10 10:12:18] [Info] Check Replication Job Status... Please Goto SMC Console To Create New Job, time: 4m30s \
What to do next
After the information about the VMware VM is imported, create and start an agentless migration job for the VMware VM. For more information, see Create an agentless migration task for a VMware VM.