VM migration from DC to another DC

So in migration distance is not as important.  Some more details are need IMO:

At a minimum I would like to understand this

• Any replication between the arrays today
• Is this block data only or NFS/CIFS data you are moving?
• How many TBs?
• How much bandwidth do you have between sites?
• What version of VMware?
• What is the length of the outage?
• Are you migrating all at once or in stages (dev, test, prod..)?

There are many options here.  You could use VM Migration Manager to do much of this work.  

Hopefully this helps.   Maybe when you get more data we can discuss this a little further.

Hi Keith,

1. No, there is no replication berween two clariion storage box.

2. Only Block data. In our Storage box (SB), there is no iSCSI, only FC SAN.

3. Total 6TB approximately.

4. 6Mb/Sec

5. In Source, ESXi 5.0 and in destination, ESX 4.0 & 4.1

6. There is no downtime.

7. Step by step (one server or two at a time).

Yes, we are also planning to use VM Migration  Manager (Change Host and Change DataStore). For this, we are planning to connect Source Storage box (SB) and destination ESX through iSCSI then both can communicate for VM motion (Change Host). And FCIP between Two SB for VM Storage Migration that will be initiate by VMware.  Please find the screenshot of my plan and PLEASE NOURISH, MAKE CORRECTIONS, IDEAS, TIPS, ......I also want to know about FCIP connection....any idea?

So I have two main thoughts after reading your response.   First that I don't think you can do this with know downtime.  There is going to be a cut-over event between the two sites.  VMM will help schedule/manage/coordinate the replication and cut-over but when you switch over between sites you will have to have downtime.   At least this is my understanding please let me know if I somehow misunderstand the product.

Secondly you have said that you are going to move 6TB of data over a 6Mbps link the math does not add up.   If the data was static and not changing or not being used it would take over 100 days to copy 6TB of a 6Mbps link.   So you have to start thinking about seeding the data or growing your pipe.  

Concerning technologies I would wonder why you would want to do FCIP.  I would add Ethernet ports to the CX4's and leverage my existing IP infrastructure.   But in your case it may be best to look at dropping a new array in the source site...you could probably event go with a VNXe and then replicate everything over iSCSI once it is in sync pause that replication move it to the new site and then cut everything over at once.

Final thought if you are moving 1 or 2 servers at a time this may still be feasible to do over a 6Mbps link but you need to understand the applications and the level of communications between these servers very well.   If you have a batch process that executes between two systems that moves a significant amount of data between the two hosts and you move one of the hosts to the new site this could create significant performance issues.  Same thing with a 3 tier application like SAP, Peoplesoft, or Oracle.....

One final thought is why do you need array to array connectivity as won't VMM handle the replication of the data via vSphere Replication?   There is no need for array to array replication if you are really doing it one or two VMs at a time.

We are not going to buy vsphere replication licenses as we are moving out of VMware product. I need to check with VMware team for any downtime during VMM and iSCSI connection between two Storage Box with emc. Thanks for your suggestions. We will increase bandwidth also as per our requirement.