There are a number of ways to perform the steps listed below, this was tried/tested/proven by using the exact steps below.
- Open up the AppAssure Core Console and go to virtual standby and pause the export for the agent you which to migrate: (do not use the checkboxes to select the VM)
- Once paused open up your vSphere client and navigate to the datastore that contains your .vmx/.vmdks file, right click and Browse Datastore:
- Once open select the folder that contains your .vmx/.vmdk files and download the entire folder. The folder download will transfer all the files to whichever folder you indicated, this copy process can also be done through Putty by connecting to the host directly, this CAN NOT be done through storage vMotion due to the standard naming convention of the snapshots in AppAssure).
- Once the download has completed you will need to upload the downloaded folder to the ‘new’ datastore. Again in vSphere browse to the desired datastore, right click and Browse Datastore. Click the ‘root’ directory on the left and the upload icon on the toolbar and upload folder. Browse to the folder you downloaded and upload it.
- Once the upload has finished the 2 folders in the datastores should be identical (with the exception of thick/thin provision, this discrepancy is expected).
- Once finished in vSphere right click the Virtual Standby VM and Remove from Inventory.
- Now go back to the ‘new’ datastore through the Datastore Browser and right click the virtual standby’s .vmx file and rename it. You want to rename it to say “vmname.old.vmx”
- Now open up the AA console again and go to virtual standy and click the gear icon and ‘edit’ the virtual standby (again do not ‘check the VM’ just click the gear icon to the right of the VS in question):
- Now use the dropdown menu to select the datastore that you have uploaded the .vmx/.vmdk files to, and click save.
- After you save the new location, click the gear icon again to the right of the VM in question and ‘force’ (again do not select the VM itself, just use the gear icon)
- You should see a number of tasks in vSphere as VMware re-established a ‘new’ VM for these .vmdks, however afterwards AA should just perform the next incremental pass and NOT a full export:
As stated previously there may be other alternatives that work (or steps slightly different than what is in this document) however this method has worked repeatedly in a lab environment. For an example, the copying of the VM from one datastore to another while logged in through Putty has also been proven to work.
The reason for NOT checking the checkbox when modifying the Virtual Standby settings is that when you do the core logs an ‘Export Configuration changed’ entry, when you just click the gear icon itself the core registers an ‘Export Configuration set’ entry. This difference has proven inconsistent results when selecting the checkbox, so these steps encourage you to NOT do so.