I am running ESXi in my lab (for Cisco voice servers and some Windows VMs). The VMs are on an iSCSI datastore hosted by a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Business. Due to major issues with iSCSI on the ReadyNAS platform and the inability by Netgear to troubleshoot the issues (NAS lockup requiring hard reset), I decided to purchase a QNAP TS-569L and use it to host my ESXi datastore. I'm now trying to migrate my VMs from the iSCSI datastore hosted on the ReadyNAS to the iSCSI datastore hosted by the QNAP.
My VMs are thin-provisioned, and I would like to preserve thin provisioning after the migration. The ESXi datastore browser can move (or copy) VMs from one datastore to another, but thin-provisioned VMs become thick-provisioned after they have been moved (or copied). Someone advised Veeam for this purpose, which I installed and configured. Unfortunately, Veeam errors out with the message that the current license does not allow the migration of the VMs from one datastore to another. Just today I found out that one must have at least the ESXi Essentials license ($500) to allow this type of migration by Veeam.
I've also tried OVF tool (the MMware command line utility), using the following syntax:
./ovftool -ds QNAP-iSCSI -dm=thin vi://root@192.168.200.10/CUCM-Pub vi://root@192.168.200.10
where:
QNAP-iSCSI is the name of the datastore on the QNAP
192.168.200.10 is the IP of my ESXi box that is connected to both iSCSI datastores (one hosted by the ReadyNAS and the other by the QNAP).
CUCM-Pub is the name of the VM on the ReadyNAS iSCSI datastore that I"m trying to migrate to the QNAP iSCSI datastore.
However, I keep getting the following error message:
Error: Unexpected option: vi://root@192.168.200.10/CUCM-Pub
This is probably due to the same issue - the free ESXi license does not allow this type VM migration. So, what are my options with the free ESXi license? I am not prepared to pay $500 for the Essentials license at this point.
Thank you!