By now everyone has heard about the new Quick Storage Migration feature coming in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. I think it’s funny to watch Microsoft Virtualization change their tune as they slowly copy the advanced features of VMware vSphere with each new release of Hyper-V. Recall how last year, a Microsoft supporter from Kroll Factual Data declared VMotion (live migration) a “cool gimmick” that is unsafe for a production environment.
Today I’d like to point out an article from ZDNet that continues the tradition with the upcoming Quick Storage Migration feature in R2:
Unlike VMWare’s storage migration feature, Storage vMotion, Microsoft has chosen not to use a “Live” storage migration approach with their Quick Storage Migration, which suspends VM activity for several minutes while the VMs are being moved, after which the VMs are resumed from suspend. Microsoft insists that this is to ensure referential integrity of the data being moved, and that the majority of large enterprise customers which they worked with to integrate this feature did not do storage migration during production hours.
Unbelievable. Interesting use of the word “chosen.”
I’ll be sure to link back to this blog post when Hyper-V 2013 comes out and Microsoft finally has Live Storage Migration. Stay tuned!
But seriously — are you using Storage VMotion to move production virtual machines?
“But seriously — are you using Storage VMotion to move production virtual machines?”
Yes. Frequently. Wouldn’t want to do my job without it. 🙂
Yes storage vmotion is essential and avoids inconveniencing the customer for upgrades they might struggle to see the immediate benefit of
Thanks, gentlemen. I just knew there was someone out there using it. 🙂
“But seriously — are you using Storage VMotion to move production virtual machines?”
Are you kidding ? Who is *not* using sVMotion ?
You should invert the question to , “Is someone NOT using storage vMotion” ?
It is a joke MS to say it is not secure after so many time running on production environments.
I remember many articles referencing this feature and I certainly remember the boisterous words of the Kroll supporter you are referring to. He strikes me as someone who could be paid to believe his own lies.
If I remember correctly, this is the same type of thing we heard from MS about VMotion.
In the last 3 months I have done over 80 sVmotions of productions guest without a problem.
Thanks for weighing in, guys.
“But seriously — are you using Storage VMotion to move production virtual machines?”
YES! As little as possible but when necessary I won’t hesitate. In the process of a storage migration I’ve used svmotion on all of my vms. I’ve definitely seen the process fail in a couple of different fashion but I’ve always been able to recover without an outage.
Tim, I like the “without an outage” part. 🙂
Storage VMotion is a critical part of the business processes now. Everytime we can with confidence use a new functionality like this to keep downtime to a minimum we go with it.
Been using Storage VMotion for close to a year now. Can’t wait to hit vSphere 4 and not use a plugin.
Great to hear it, Ian.
+1 here. Haven’t had an issue yet, and it sure seems safer than copying and pasting VHDs around.
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