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

Log into Prism Central and navigate to Compute -> Images -> Add Image and upload the Move qcow2:

Deploy Move VM

Once the QCOW image upload is completed navigate to Compute -> VMs -> Create VM:

I am going to give the Move VM 4 vCPU, 8GB memory, and set Memory Overcommit to enable:

On the Resources tab of the wizard use add disk to attach a clone of the QCOW image as the VM boot disk:

Also add a Subnet and choose the management VM subnet:

Lastly under Resources choose Legacy BIOS and make sure the VM boots from the QCOW disk first:

Finish creating the VM and then right click on it to power it on:

Configure Nutanix Move VM

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:

With the IP address set go back to your web browser and go to the Move IP/hostname:

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 I created for this:

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 automatically based on what’s configured on the ESXi side:

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 Central 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 you will see that they are both online and ready for application verification: