How to Migrate Storage of Virtual Machine Files

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

In System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2, on a host that is running Windows Server 2008 R2, you can move a virtual machine’s files from one storage location to another on the same host. If the virtual machine is running, you can do this with minimal to no service outage for users of the virtual machine, which is known as quick storage migration. If the virtual machine has more than one virtual hard disk, you can specify a separate location for each virtual hard disk (.vhd) file.

Use the following procedure to move a virtual machine’s files to a different storage location on the same host.

To migrate virtual machine files to a different storage location on the same host

  1. In Virtual Machines view, navigate to the host on which the virtual machine is deployed.

  2. In the results pane, select the virtual machine, and then click Migrate storage in the Actions pane.

    The Migrate Virtual Machine Wizard opens at the Select Path page, which displays the current locations of the virtual machine’s files. The current path to the location of the configuration files is displayed in the Virtual machine path box, and the current path to the location of each virtual hard disk (.vhd) is displayed in the Disks list.

  3. On the Select Path page, do one of the following:

    • Click the Virtual machine path down arrow, and then click an existing default virtual machine path on the list.

    • Next to the Virtual machine path box, click Browse, navigate to a location on the host, and then click OK.

      VMM automatically changes the paths for all virtual disks to the same path that you specified for the configuration files.

      Alternately, you can type a path. When you type a new path for the virtual machine’s configuration files, VMM does not automatically change the paths for the virtual disks until you click outside of the Virtual machine path box.

      Note

      If you selected a path other than an existing virtual machine path and want to add the path to the default paths on the host, select the Add this path to the list of host default paths check box. For information about adding default virtual machine paths, see How to Set Placement Options for a Host.

  4. To move all of the virtual machine’s files to the same location, click Next, and then move to the next step.

    To move one or more of a virtual machine’s .vhd files to a location different than the location of the configuration files, do the following:

    • In the Disks area, type the new path in the Location box for each virtual hard disk, or click Browse to navigate to the location where you want to store the .vhd file.

      Important

      If the virtual machine is running, and you change the path for any of the virtual hard drives, you also must specify a new path for the virtual machine’s configuration files or the migration operation will fail. You must do this even if you want to leave the configuration files in their current location. To do this, you can create a new subfolder within the current location of the configuration files, and then select that new location in the Virtual machine path box.

    • After you have specified a new storage location for all virtual machine files, click Next.

  5. On the Summary page, click Move to begin moving the virtual machine files.

    To review the progress and results of the operation, display the Jobs window. By default, this window is opened after the wizard closes. To view this window at any time, click the Jobs button on the console toolbar.