Hypervisor Lab

In this section we will deploy a Nutanix Move VM onto our AHV cluster, so it will run as a double nested VM in this scenario:

Then we will use Move to perform V2V migrations of the ESXi based Linux and Windows VMs we created in Part1:

Keep in mind this is a nested hypervisor cluster so the CVMs will actually be double nested (VM running inside VM) so expect high latency numbers and slower operations. The goal of this lab is not performance but instead trying out functionality.

Download Nutanix Move QCOW2

To start you need to download the Nutanix Move qcow2 image from your Nutanix account. I will be using the latest version at this time which is 6.1.3:

Upload Move QCOW to Cluster

Now that we have our lab-storage container navigate to Settings -> Image Configuration -> Upload Image:

Upload the Move QCOW:

It will take some time for the QCOW image to be created and then updated as part of the upload process under Tasks:

Deploy Move VM

Next navigate to VM -> Table -> Create VM:

I am going to give the Move VM 4 vCPU, 8GB memory, Legacy BIOS, add a single disk that is a clone of the Move QCOW, and a single vNIC on the management 105 VLAN:

Once the VM is done being created power it on and wait for it to finish first boot from the VM Console:

Once the VM is done booting log in with the default username admin and password nutanix/4u. Once logged in you will be prompted to set a static IP which we want to using the IP address we set aside in the planning post:

Once the script completes you will be able to log into the Move WebUI from your browser:

Configure Nutanix Move

Log into Move with the default username nutanix and password nutanix/4u where it will prompt you to set a new password.

Once you are logged in the first thing we need to do is add our source vSphere environment from Part1 and our target Nutanix environment we created in the last post. Do this with the Add Environment button:

I am going to add my vSphere enviornment fist:

After adding the vCenter we also need to upload a VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit to assist with the V2V migrations. Click on the Upload VDDK link:

Follow the directions to download the VDDK from your Broadcom account and upload it to Move:

With that done navigate back to the Dashboard and click Add Environment again to add the Nutanix cluster:

Perform a V2V Migration

Now that our source and target environments are added its time to create our migration plan to move VMs over from VMware to Nutanix. Click on Create a Migration Plan:

I am going to migrate both the Linux and Windows VM and store them in the lab-storage container:

Since both VMs are on VLAN 105 in ESXi I will put them on VLAN 105 in AHV:

Next I am going to leave VM preperation mode to automatic, meaning Move will log into the VMs and perform the pre/post migration tasks that need to happen like removing VMware Tools, regenerating the initramfs, and installing Nutanix Guest Tools:

Next I am going to have Move keep all the vNIC MAC addresses and enable memory overcommit for the AHV target VMs it creates. It will also create AHV VMs with the same vCPU/vMem/vDisk settings:

After clicking next and having Move validate all the settings/passwords start the migration:

This will kick off a pre-copy where the VMware source VMs will remain running while Move copies data over and prepares for the cutover. First Move will validate the plan:

Then it will go through VM preparation tasks, driver installations, prepare the target VMs, and pre-copy over the data:

During this time the VMs are still running on the VMware cluster:

Wait until both VMs have finished the inital data copy and are Ready for Cutover. This is the step where the VMware VMs are shut down, a final incremental copy is performed, and then the Nutanix target VMs are brought online:

Select both VMs and choose Cutover:

Monitor the cutover process until its complete:

If you log into Prism you will now see both VMs running on the Nutanix cluster, and if you log into vCenter you will see both VMs have been powered down, had their vNICs disconnected from the VDS, and are still available in case you needed to back out of the migration.

If you connect to each VMs console from Prism you will see that they are both online and ready for application verification:

This concludes performing V2V migrations to our AHV cluster. In the next section we will deploy Prism Central for Multi-Cluster management.