Move a host with a vDS to a new datacenter in the same vCenter instance

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

The host is moving to a new logical datacenter within the same vCenter instance that it currently resides in.

The host is using a Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS) for networking.

Environment

VMware vCenter (all versions)

Resolution

NOTE: If vSAN is in-use on the cluster, please open a case with Broadcom Support to assist in this process, as vSAN is a cluster-level storage and migrating the hosts can impact storage connectivity as a result. Creating and managing Broadcom support request (SR) cases

After creating a new datacenter object, a new cluster object in the new datacenter with the desired cluster settings (e.g. HA, DRS, etc.), and a new vDS in the new datacenter with the desired settings and portgroups, the host can be migrated by performing the following steps:

1. Put the first host into Maintenance Mode
2. Move all of the host networking to a standard switch to evacuate the host from the vDS completely
   • See Migrate Virtual Machines (VMs) and VMkernel Adapters from Distributed Switch (vDS) to Standard Switch (vSS) for more information
3. Remove the host from the vDS using the "Add and Manage hosts" wizard on the vDS
   • See Remove Hosts from a vSphere Distributed Switch
4. Move the host out of the current cluster to be a standalone host in the current datacenter by clicking and dragging the host object to the existing datacenter object
5. Move the host to the new datacenter by clicking and dragging the host object to the new datacenter object
6. Move the host to the new cluster in the new datacenter by clicking and dragging the host object to the new cluster object
7. Move the host networking to the new vDS
   • The process is outlined in the above KB 306406 from step 2 above as well, but below are more documents for specific steps as well:
     • Add Hosts to a vSphere Distributed Switch
     • Configure Physical Network Adapters on a vSphere Distributed Switch
     • Migrate Virtual Machine Networking to the vSphere Distributed Switch
     • Migrate VMkernel Adapters to a vSphere Distributed Switch
8. Repeat on the remaining hosts