Storage vMotion (also called svmotion) with vCenter 2.5 and ESX 3.5 is currently a feature only available via a command line. Svmotion allows you to move a Virtual Machines Virtual Disk from one datastore to another while the Virtual Machine is live (powered on). A few programmers from the VMware Community forums have made a SourceForge project to enable a vCenter plugin to use svmotion, without the need to use a command line interface. This lesson will show you how to enable that plugin and perform a Storage vMotion through vCenter.
Initial Install - Obtain svmotion Plugin
Browse to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=228535 to download the Storage vMotion GUI plugin for vCenter.
Install Storage vMotion Plugin
When you've downloaded the file, doubleclick the file to begin the installation. It is a very simple installation where you can accept the defaults for any prompts.
In vCenter, Manage Plugins
Start the VI Client (connecting to vCenter) and browse to the Plugins area by selecting "Plugins" from the toolbar and then select "Manage Plugins".
Enable svmotion Plugin in VI Client
Typically all you will need to do is select the "Installed" tab and select the checkmark box under the svmotion plugin area to enable the plugin. Then select the "OK" button. If the svmotion plugin is not an option under the "Installed" tab, then I've seen where you'll need to go to the "Available" tab and "install" it from there. Then return to the "Installed" tab and follow these instructions.
Migrating Storage through vCenter VI Client
If the plugin was enabled successfully, then you will have an option to "Migrate Storage" when you right click on a Virtual Machine. Select that option if you are ready to perform a Storage vMotion migration.
Drag and Drop Virtual Disk to New Location
A window will appear that looks like the screenshot. The Virtual Machines' Virtual Disk will be shown under the current Datastore that it is located on. To move it to a new datastore, drag and drop the virtual disk to a different datastore that is listed. In our example above, we'll drag and drop the virtual disk from the datastore called "SAN" to the new datastore called "dnvmes-vol2-nonrepl".
Verify and Submit Operation
If this location is where you want to move the virtual disks to, then select the "Apply" button which will begin the Storage vMotion operation. You can monitor the task under the Task area in the VI Client. Once it is completed, the virtual disk will now be located on the new datastore thanks to Storage vMotion!
