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Quick migration

  • March 11, 2025
  • 11 comments
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  • Nikks
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  • 111 comments

I have few questions on the quick migration 

I am trying to do a quick migration of VM’s  from my 7.x vcenter to my 8.x 

  • Whether the VM will be stopped or suspended (and thus inaccessible) during the cold migration and will have impact on production ?
  • If Quick Migration, retains the original UUID of the VMs to ensure the existing backup chain remains intact ?
  •  An estimate of the time required for the migration, considering the same datastore is being used, with the only changes being the hosts and the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) ?
  • I have 5 proxies that I already quick migrated to my new vcenter and backups are running fine, my vbr server I cannot quick migrate because it is not being backed up so I plan on vmotion to new vcenter, do you foresee any issues?

Best answer by lukas.k

Hi ​@Nikks,

Here you find additional input regarding the Veeam quick migration:

Quick Migration - User Guide for VMware vSphere

 

There will be an impact to your production since the VM state has to be suspended or shut down to complete the migration.

I’m pretty sure the UUID will be the same to keep the chains since Veeam initiates the actions.

The estimated time depends on the performance on you infrastructure in general (network, storage etc.) and the size of the VMs so there cannot be an estimation with the current state of information.

For the VBR server I would also suggest to use vMotion if possible - basically you can use this as a fallback way for the other source VMs as well.

 

Hope that helps, just keep us posted in case you need additional input!

 

Best

Lukas

    11 comments

    lukas.k
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    • lukas.k
    • Veeam Vanguard
    • 357 comments
    • Answer
    • March 11, 2025

    Hi ​@Nikks,

    Here you find additional input regarding the Veeam quick migration:

    Quick Migration - User Guide for VMware vSphere

     

    There will be an impact to your production since the VM state has to be suspended or shut down to complete the migration.

    I’m pretty sure the UUID will be the same to keep the chains since Veeam initiates the actions.

    The estimated time depends on the performance on you infrastructure in general (network, storage etc.) and the size of the VMs so there cannot be an estimation with the current state of information.

    For the VBR server I would also suggest to use vMotion if possible - basically you can use this as a fallback way for the other source VMs as well.

     

    Hope that helps, just keep us posted in case you need additional input!

     

    Best

    Lukas

    LK | Veeam Vanguard | VUG Leader - Cyber Security Space | Security Specialist
    Mohamed Ali
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    • Mohamed Ali
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    • 84 comments
    • March 11, 2025

    ​@Nikks Yes, cold migration will cause downtime because the VM must be powered off before migration and VM will be inaccessible until the migration is complete and the VM is powered back on in the new environment

     

    Quick Migration retains the original UUID and backup chain remains intact. Since the UUID is preserved, Veeam will continue incremental backups without treating the VM as a new entity.

     

    As ​@lukas.k  said, estimated time depends on the performance on you infrastructure such as network speed and host resources and size of the VM. Since the VM files are remain on the same datastore, for cold migration it depends on how quickly the VM can be powered off and registered on the new vCenter. 

     

    vMotioning VBR server should work fine. As a precaution, take a configuration backup before performing the migration. 

    Mohamed Ali | VUG leader | VMCE 2024, VCP-DCV, CCP-V
    Chris.Childerhose
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    • Chris.Childerhose
    • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
    • 9539 comments
    • March 11, 2025

    I will not add more from what others have said but ensure you have a configuration backup of the VBR just in case the vmotion has issues.  You could even use this method to spin up a new VBR and migrate that way if needed.

    Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
    matheusgiovanini
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    • matheusgiovanini
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    • 386 comments
    • March 11, 2025

    When migrating VMs between vCenter instances while keeping them on the same datastore, the duration depends on factors such as VM size, network speed, and system performance. Cold migrations require shutting down the VM, resulting in downtime.

    Matheus Giovanini | Senior Backup Analyst | Veeam Legend | Blog: techdirectarchive.com
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    • Nikks
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    • March 12, 2025

    Thank you all for this great information!

    matheusgiovanini
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    • matheusgiovanini
    • Veeam Legend
    • 386 comments
    • March 12, 2025

    You're welcome! You can count on the entire community for any questions you have. 😎

    Matheus Giovanini | Senior Backup Analyst | Veeam Legend | Blog: techdirectarchive.com
    Chris.Childerhose
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    • Chris.Childerhose
    • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
    • 9539 comments
    • March 12, 2025

    Glad you were able to get the information you need.  Community for the win again. 😎

    Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
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    • Nikks
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    • March 12, 2025

    One more question -If I removed my 20 TB file server from inventory on the old vcenter and added the server to a new host in the vcenter which has access to the same datastore ,would that change the uuid and veeam would consider that as a new backup which means it would run a full and I would lose my backupchain?

    Chris.Childerhose
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    • Chris.Childerhose
    • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
    • 9539 comments
    • March 12, 2025

    One more question -If I removed my 20 TB file server from inventory on the old vcenter and added the server to a new host in the vcenter which has access to the same datastore ,would that change the uuid and veeam would consider that as a new backup which means it would run a full and I would lose my backupchain?

    The short answer is yes.

    Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
    N
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    • Nikks
    • Author
    • Influencer
    • 111 comments
    • March 12, 2025

    One more question -If I removed my 20 TB file server from inventory on the old vcenter and added the server to a new host in the vcenter which has access to the same datastore ,would that change the uuid and veeam would consider that as a new backup which means it would run a full and I would lose my backupchain?

    The short answer is yes.

    I meant to say new vcenter, remember my production servers are in a 7.x vcenter and I need to get them into my 8.x vcenter, so it would run full backup and lose my backupchain, correct?

    Chris.Childerhose
    Forum|alt.badge.img+21
    • Chris.Childerhose
    • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
    • 9539 comments
    • March 12, 2025

    One more question -If I removed my 20 TB file server from inventory on the old vcenter and added the server to a new host in the vcenter which has access to the same datastore ,would that change the uuid and veeam would consider that as a new backup which means it would run a full and I would lose my backupchain?

    The short answer is yes.

    I meant to say new vcenter, remember my production servers are in a 7.x vcenter and I need to get them into my 8.x vcenter, so it would run full backup and lose my backupchain, correct?

    That is correct.

     
     
     
    Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech


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