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You are here: Home / Automation / Cross vCenter Workload Migration Fling v3.1

Cross vCenter Workload Migration Fling v3.1

01.22.2020 by William Lam // 24 Comments

Here is a small update to the Cross vCenter Workload Migration Fling which includes a couple of commonly requested features along with some bug fixes.

What's New in v3.1

  • Support for disk format conversion between Thick (Lazy Zeroed), Thick (Eager Zeroed) and Thin provisioning
  • Support for VM rename pattern for Clone operation
  • Fixed duplicated network selection when performing bulk migration
  • Fixed startup failure when a new home vCenter is specified as a command line argument

vSphere HTML5 and Standalone UI Client Support

In our 3.0 release, we added support for a native vSphere HTML5 (H5) Client experience which leverages new remote plugin framework that was introduced in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 and enables customers who prefer to use the H5 Client for their day to day use to also take advantage of the Cross vCenter Workload Migration Tool directly from the same UI. However, the addition of this new consumption UI created some confusion as some folks assumed this was the only mechanism. As stated in the release notes, we support both the new H5 UI as well as the standalone UI which many customers have been using for quite some time.

I suspect the confusion was due to the new CLI syntax which now requires specifying a vCenter Server endpoint to register. It is true that if you wish to use the new H5 Client integration, you will need to have a vSphere 6.7 Update 1 environment and provide credentials to that "home" vCenter Server. However, if you do not wish to use the H5 Client and you wish to use the old standalone client, you simply omit the vCenter Server registration details and the standalone client will work. In fact, even if you decide to use the H5 Client UI, you can always use the standalone client as that is the actual backend of the system.

Option 1: vSphere H5 Client Plugin

The following command will register the Cross vCenter Workload Migration Fling plugin to the specified vCenter Server:

java -jar xvm-3.1.jar --vcenter.fqdn=VCENTER-IP-OR-FQDN --vcenter.user=ADMIN-USER --vcenter.pass=ADMIN-PASSWORD

You will need to logout and then log back in to see the plugin which is located under "Menu" as shown in the screenshot below.

Option 2: Standalone UI Client

The following command will start the Cross vCenter Workload Migration Fling in standalone mode:

java -jar xvm-3.1.jar

You can then access the standalone client by opening a browser to localhost and port specified (default is 8443). You can always access the plugin locally whether you are using Option 1 or 2.

More from my site

  • Resource Pools, Folders & VMC now supported with Cross vCenter vMotion Utility Fling
  • How to easily disable vMotion & Cross vCenter vMotion for a particular Virtual Machine?
  • vMotion across different VDS version between onPrem and VMC
  • Bulk VM Migration using new Cross vCenter vMotion Utility Fling
  • When to use Move-VM cmdlet vs xMove.ps1 script for performing Cross vCenter vMotions?

Categories // Automation, VMware Cloud on AWS, vSphere Tags // Cross vCenter Clone, Cross vMotion, ExVC-vMotion, vSphere

Comments

  1. *protectedcomo fazer o cão parar de latir de madrugada says

    02/19/2020 at 9:28 am

    Thanks for post!

    Como Fazer o Cachorro Parar de Latir de Madrugada

    Reply
  2. *protectedLong_lanh says

    04/24/2020 at 8:17 am

    download the file and extract but don't the file jar xvm-3.1.jar please advise. thanks

    Reply
  3. *protectedMike O says

    08/03/2020 at 3:02 pm

    Hi William, I was wondering if there will be an update to the Cross vCenter Migration Utility for vSphere 7 support? If so, any ETA? Thanks, Mike

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      08/03/2020 at 7:14 pm

      It already works, have several folks who’ve done migrations on vSphere 7 as vMotion APIs haven’t changed

      Reply
      • *protectedMike O says

        08/05/2020 at 1:53 pm

        Thanks William, I'm assuming the same pre-req's apply, and rules around VSS/VDS migrations to VSS/VDS are the same? (ie, if we have vSphere 6.7 on the source with vDS 6.6, we need vDS 6.6 on target vSphere 7 for the migration). https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2126851 ? Are you aware of any issues or limitations of Cross vCenter migrating from 6.X to 7? Building out a lab to test this, but figured it was worth asking 🙂 Appreciate your input.

        -Mike

        Reply
      • *protectedGeorge Leslie Parker says

        11/08/2023 at 2:49 pm

        Hi William, I don't seem to be able to download the xVmotion fling anymore. Where can I grab xvm-3.1.jar from??
        Regards, George.

        Reply
        • William Lam says

          11/09/2023 at 12:36 am

          see vmwa.re/flings

          Reply
          • *protectedGeorge Leslie Parker says

            11/09/2023 at 1:04 pm

            Ahhh, thanks Wiiliam, sorry to hear 🙁

  4. *protectedBabak says

    09/21/2020 at 9:06 pm

    Hi

    My vcsa version is 6.7 u3 now I am using follow command :

    java -jar 'D:\Virtualize\vmware\Cross vCenter Workload Migration Utility\xvm-3.1.jar' --vcenter.fqdn=labvcsa.opr.dsa --vcenter.user=*protected email* --vcenter.pass=P@ssw0rd

    and show follow output in shell :

    22:53:26 INFO *** Cross vCenter vMotion Utility ***
    22:53:27 INFO Starting ApiController v3.1 on WOPR28 with PID 27620 (D:\Virtualize\vmware\Cross vCenter Workload Migration Utility\xvm-3.1.jar started by b.seyedi in C:\WINDOWS\system32)
    22:53:27 DEBUG Running with Spring Boot v2.0.3.RELEASE, Spring v5.0.7.RELEASE
    22:53:27 INFO No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
    22:53:31 INFO Using app port 8443. The default port is 8443 and can be changed by using the -Dserver.port flag
    22:53:33 INFO Initialized persisted state for 1 sites
    22:53:33 INFO Registering site vc-home for vc: labvcsa.opr.dsa
    22:53:33 DEBUG Loading xvm keystore
    22:53:44 DEBUG Getting certificate from VC: labvcsa.opr.dsa
    22:53:44 DEBUG Obtained valid certificate for https://labvcsa.opr.dsa/sdk
    22:53:44 INFO Plugin: com.vmware.xvm has been successfully registered in vCenter .
    22:53:44 INFO Running session thread for labvcsa.opr.dsa
    22:53:44 INFO Persisted info for 1 sites
    22:53:44 INFO Successfully registered site vc-home

    Now when I login to labvcsa.opr.dsa nothig show in Home about cross vCenter
    What happen ?

    Also after login to labvsa.opr.dsa show follow error in the tasks ;

    https://pasteboard.co/Js9npKQ.jpg

    Reply
  5. *protectedHarold says

    10/06/2020 at 7:00 am

    First of all, excellent work !

    Two questions
    1) installation of plugin in vCenter is done remotely from any server with java?
    2) does the plugin needs to be registered on the source, target or both vCenter servers?

    Reply
  6. *protectedJose Gerez says

    10/08/2020 at 2:23 am

    How can I unregister the plugin?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/08/2020 at 4:21 am

      You can go to /mob/?moid=ExtensionManager and use the "unregisterExtension" with the plugin ID

      Reply
  7. *protectedD says

    10/19/2020 at 12:09 pm

    How do you uninstall this Cross vCenter Migration Fling?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/19/2020 at 12:50 pm

      See my previous reply above 🙂

      Reply
  8. *protectedsony vadakel says

    03/12/2021 at 10:56 am

    I tried from 6.7 latest build to 7.01 but no luck. Is it because of VDS compatibility ?

    Reply
  9. *protectedsony vadakel says

    03/12/2021 at 11:05 am

    It worked from 6.7 latest build to 7.01 after I shutdown the source VM

    Reply
  10. *protectedMahesh Kumar V says

    12/01/2021 at 8:15 pm

    Hi,
    I tried to migrate a VM from one VC to another using this tool. But getting "A specified parameter is not correct:spec.pool" error in source VC. What am i missing here please? we ahave both VC with 6.7 version and using standalone option of this utility.

    Reply
  11. *protectedMohamamd Badran says

    05/09/2022 at 6:49 am

    can i use the cross vcenter vMotion from vcenter-1 to vcenter-2, but without enabling the Enhanced linked Mode (ELM) ?

    in other words, is ELM a requirement for this fling cross vcenter migration to work ?

    ref:

    Cross vCenter Migration and Clone requirements in VMware vSphere 6.x and later (2106952)

    Cross vCenter Workload Migration Utility | VMware Flings

    Reply
    • *protectedMK says

      05/10/2022 at 9:12 pm

      No. ELM is not required.

      Reply
      • *protectedMohammad Badran says

        05/10/2022 at 11:33 pm

        thank you MK. for the info 🙂

        Reply
  12. *protectedMadhusudan says

    07/09/2022 at 8:19 pm

    Hi William,

    I am using xvm 3.1 on vcenter 6.7 appliance to migrate the VMs but for heavy VMs each of 3-4 TB is size, I see from the command prompt the session is getting disconnected from xvm and but in xvm GUI, migrate tab, it shows are connected but I am unable to see the status of migration in XVM. In this case, how can I restart or refresh the connectivity

    21:14:52 ERROR Exception while retrieving MORs of enitity type 'Datacenter' ..
    com.sun.xml.internal.ws.fault.ServerSOAPFaultException: Client received SOAP Fault from server: The session is not authenticated. Please see the server log to f
    ind more detail regarding exact cause of the failure.
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.fault.SOAP11Fault.getProtocolException(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.fault.SOAPFaultBuilder.createException(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.client.sei.StubHandler.readResponse(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.db.DatabindingImpl.deserializeResponse(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.db.DatabindingImpl.deserializeResponse(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.client.sei.SyncMethodHandler.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.client.sei.SyncMethodHandler.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.ws.client.sei.SEIStub.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy106.createContainerView(Unknown Source)
    at com.vmware.sdk.PropertyCollector.getEntities(PropertyCollector.java:201)
    at com.vmware.sdk.PropertyCollector.getEntityNames(PropertyCollector.java:172)

    Reply
  13. *protectedMK says

    07/15/2022 at 1:27 pm

    I am doing VM migrations from 6.7 vcenter to another 6.7. both are not in ELM.
    The migration job reaches 100% and shows as running after that also and fails as operation timed out. what is causing the issue?
    Not all migrations are failing like this. Unable to find what is causing this.

    Reply
  14. *protectedDonny W Parrott says

    07/27/2023 at 1:41 pm

    We have a situation in which our VC has died and is unrecoverable. We are planning to rebuild. We have a cluster which is running and are testing to see if this tool can move VMs from this vCenter-less cluster to a new cluster. Does it support ESX to vCenter moves?

    Reply
  15. *protectedImad says

    05/12/2024 at 5:01 am

    Hi William, fist I need to thanks you for all the support here.
    I have used the xvm-3.1 before and it was working perfectly but now when I run the command: java -jar xvm-3.1.jar I received below result:

    14:58:28 INFO *** Cross vCenter vMotion Utility ***
    14:58:29 INFO Starting ApiController v3.1 on BHHQMGMT01 with PID 16424 (F:\Cross_vcenter\xvm-3.1.jar started by pam_iabdo in F:\Cross_vcenter)
    14:58:29 DEBUG Running with Spring Boot v2.0.3.RELEASE, Spring v5.0.7.RELEASE
    14:58:29 INFO No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default

    Reply

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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