Transferring VM virtual disks into AHV - freedom of choice with Nutanix | Nutanix Community
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When it comes to migrating your environment into AHV the recommended way would be to use Nutanix Move. Much being said and written and more is coming. Nutanix understand however that using Move may not be an option for whatever reason. Freedom of choice is important after all, right?  In case you are looking for an alternative way to migrate your VMs’ disks into AHV then keep reading.

The article referred to in this post covers three scenarios:

  1. Source virtual disk files can be accessed directly by the Acropolis cluster over NFS (or HTTP). This scenario is generally possible when:
    • The source environment is a Nutanix ESXi cluster.
    • The source environment is a Nutanix Hyper-V cluster.
    • The virtual disk files are hosted on an NFS server and the Acropolis cluster can be provided access to the NFS server export. (Common in non-Nutanix NFS based ESXi environments.) 
    • Previously exported virtual disk files are hosted by any NFS or HTTP server and the Acropolis cluster has access to them.
  2. Source virtual disk files cannot be accessed directly by the Acropolis cluster over NFS (or HTTP). This process is generally needed when:
    • The source ESXi environment is not NFS based.
    • The source Hyper-V environment is not Nutanix based.
    • Direct NFS or HTTP access to the source virtual disk files is not allowed to the Acropolis cluster
  3. Working with previously "exported" Virtual Disk files.Typically, this method is only needed when the virtual disk files were already exported to an external repository not served by NFS or HTTP. However, this option can also be used when there is direct connectivity between the source hypervisor cluster and the Acropolis cluster but the image service times out when pulling the virtual disk files remotely in scenario 1.
    • Use a SFTP client to connect to the Acropolis cluster. Connect to port 2222 of any CVM IP and log on as the Prism admin user. Documentation link.
    • Optionally, create a sub-directory in the target Acropolis container to use as the staging area for the virtual disk files. Do not use a separate container to the final location.
    • From the SFTP client, copy the virtual disk files, both the *.vmdk and *-flat.vmdk files, into the target Acropolis container.
    • Use the Acropolis Image Service to import the virtual disk file as an image via the Prism UI.

For detailed steps, per-requisites and notes please read KB-2622 Transferring Virtual Disks to an Acropolis Cluster.

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