I've got a couple of Dell servers at home—an R720 running ESXi 7.0 and a newer R740 with ESXi 8.0. I need to move some VMs from the R720 to the R740. After some research, I found out I can set up an NFS share on my TrueNAS to function as a datastore for both servers. I've done that and connected both the R720 and R740 to this new datastore. Now, I'm trying to figure out which specific files I need to transfer from the VM folder on the R720's datastore to the NFS share. I've watched a few videos and they mention that I need to copy several files, including a flat.vmdk file, but I can only see this file when I use WinSCP or FileZilla, not in the R720 GUI. So, my question is: should I just copy the entire VM folder? Also, I can't transfer the files to my PC first since one of the VMs is 2 TB, and I don't have space for that. I really appreciate any guidance!
2 Answers
If you have vCenter, it’s super simple—just right-click the VM and select 'Migrate.' But since you're doing it without vCenter, here's a quick guide:
1. Power down the VM.
2. Remove any snapshots if you've got them (though this can vary).
3. Go to the Storage menu and move the storage.
4. Register the VM on the new host.
5. Start it up. If it won't start due to missing files, double-check those snapshots. Good luck!
Honestly, I’d recommend copying the entire VM folder. Sure, there are files you might not strictly need, but if you're unsure, leaving things out can cause you headaches down the line. It’s better to keep everything intact to avoid troubleshooting later on, especially for a one-time transfer like this.
Got it, I’ll just copy the whole folder then.
Thanks! I’ll give that process a try.