Cross-host Storage vMotion is grayed out in vSphere Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
The option to perform a cross-host Storage vMotion (Change both host and datastore) is grayed out in the vSphere Client, but the option is available from vSphere Web Client.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

This issue occurs because the cross-host Storage vMotion functionality is not available from the vSphere Client.

Resolution

You can use a cross-host Storage vMotion to migrate virtual machines to a different host and datastore simultaneously. In addition, unlike Storage vMotion, which requires a single host to have access to both the source and destination datastore, you can migrate virtual machines across storage accessibility boundaries.

Cross-host Storage vMotion does not require environments with shared storage. This is useful for performing cross-cluster migrations, when the target cluster machines might not have access to the source cluster's storage. Virtual machine processes continue to run during the migration with cross-host Storage vMotion.

As noted in the Cause section, the cross-host Storage vMotion functionality is only available when using the vSphere Web Client.

For more information, see the Migrate a Virtual Machine to a New Host and Datastore by Using vMotion in the vSphere Web Client section in the vCenter Server and Host Management guide.

Additional Information

• For more information, see the Migration with vMotion in Environments Without Shared Storage section in the vCenter Server and Host Management guide.
• For more information on new features of the vSphere Web Client, see the Product Support Notices section in the VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0a Release Notes.