vMotion
Eliminate application downtime from planned server maintenance by migrating running virtual machines between hosts.
Build a Flexible, Efficient Datacenter
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vSphere vMotion enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another with zero downtime, continuous service availability and complete transaction integrity. vMotion is a key enabling technology for creating the dynamic, automated and self-optimizing datacenter.
- Move running virtual machines instantly
- Manage and schedule live migrations with ease
Move Entire Running Virtual Machines Instantly vMotion technology, deployed in production by 80% of VMware customers*, leverages the complete virtualization of servers, storage and networking to move an entire running virtual machine instantaneously from one physical server to another. The virtual machine retains its network identity and connections, ensuring a seamless migration process. You'll be able to:
- Perform live migrations with zero downtime, undetectable to the user
- Continuously and automatically optimize virtual machines within resource pools
- Perform hardware maintenance without scheduling downtime and disrupting business operations
- Proactively move virtual machines away from failing or underperforming servers
Manage and Schedule Live Migrations with Ease The migration wizard lets you easily benefit from the reliability and manageability derived from a production-proven product used by thousands of customers for years.
- Perform multiple concurrent migrations of any virtual machine running any operating system across any type of hardware and storage supported by vSphere, complete with audit trail
- Identify the optimal placement for a virtual machine in seconds
- Schedule migrations to happen at pre-defined times-- without an administrator’s presence
vSphere vMotion can be purchased as a component of most VMware vSphere
editions and
kits.
*Source: VMware 2011 Customer Survey
Live migration of a virtual machine from one physical server to another with VMware vMotion is enabled by three underlying technologies.
- The entire state of a virtual machine is encapsulated by a set of files stored on shared storage such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS). The vSphere virtual machine file system (VMFS) allows multiple vSphere hosts to access the same virtual machine files concurrently.
- The active memory and precise execution state of the virtual machine is rapidly transferred over a high speed network, allowing the virtual machine to instantaneously switch from running on the source vSphere host to the destination vSphere host. vMotion keeps the transfer period imperceptible to users by keeping track of on-going memory transactions in a bitmap. Once the entire memory and system state has been copied over to the target vSphere host, vMotion suspends the source virtual machine, copies the bitmap contents to the target vSphere host and resumes the virtual machine on the target vSphere host. This entire process takes less than two seconds on a Gigabit Ethernet network.
- The networks being used by the virtual machine are virtualized by the underlying vSphere host. This ensures that even after the migration, the virtual machine network identity and network connections are preserved. Since the migration of a virtual machine with vMotion preserves the precise execution state, the network identity, and the active network connections, the result is zero downtime and no disruption to users.
Enhancements to vMotion in vSphere 5.1 provide a new level of ease and flexibility for live virtual machine migrations. Prior to vSphere 5.1, both vMotion and Storage vMotion required shared storage to perform live migrations of virtual machines. (vMotion required shared storage between hosts performing the vMotion. Storage vMotion required a host to have access to the source and destination datastores.) vSphere 5.1 removes the shared storage requirement.
vSphere 5.1 enables a virtual machine to change its datastore and host simultaneously, even if the two hosts don't have any shared storage in common. It allows virtual machine migration between clusters in a larger datacenter, which may not have a common set of datastores between them but also allows virtual machine migration in small environments without access to expensive shared storage equipment.
vSphere 5.1 allows combining vMotion and storage vMotion into one process. This combined migration copies both the virtual machine memory and its disk over the network to the destination host. After all the memory and disk data are send over, the destination virtual machine will resume and the source virtual machine will be powered off.
