Changing resources and moving between ESXi servers
Before a plan change or a transfer between two ESXi servers, check capacity, network mapping and backups.
CPU, RAM and disk
vCPU, RAM, disk, IPv4 and snapshot limits are applied through product / plan upgrades and downgrades. Check the ESXi capacity and the product limits. A CPU / RAM change may require a shutdown, depending on the guest and hot-add settings.
After growing a disk, verify that the guest partition and file system have grown as well. Do not treat a plan change to a smaller disk as automatic shrinking of the data. Disk operations do not run while the virtual machine has snapshots; the module asks you to delete them first. Delete the snapshots, check that the chain has been consolidated, then try again.
Before a move
- Verify the source service number and its VM mapping.
- Take an independent backup and plan a maintenance window.
- Check the target CPU / RAM / datastore capacity, network / port group and template profile compatibility.
- If the IP is to be kept, make sure the target supports the same network routing; if it will change, prepare suitable addresses in the target pool.
- Delete the virtual machine’s snapshots; a move does not start while snapshots exist.
- Do not start a move while provisioning, a reinstall or a resource operation is running on the same service.
Moving from the management page
On the move screen of the service, choose the target ESXi, the storage / network selections and the IP policy. Check the summary, then start the operation. Shared storage and separate datastore flows differ; there may be downtime during the move.
Follow the progress in the queue and the event log. After a successful move, verify the service’s target ESXi record, power state, IPs, VMware Tools and customer access. Do not clean up the source files by hand; if something fails, review the log and the source mapping and contact support.
If the move fails, the service and the server stay where they were. A half-finished copy on the target is marked Waiting for deletion in the virtual machine list and is deleted by the hourly task; do not start this copy or link it to a service.