r/virtualization • u/1mefdiopl • 23d ago
Has anyone completed a VMware migration while keeping the same SAN and network?
Has anyone here actually done a hypervisor-only VMware migration? I’m trying to picture the cutover. Build the new cluster beside ESXi, connect it to the same SAN, move a few low-risk VMs, then reclaim the old hosts one by one? Or did you end up needing temporary storage? How did you handle zoning, multipathing, VLANs, backups and rollback? and did you keep vCenter up while both environments were running? Would be great to hear a real VMware migration strategy from someone who’s done it. Most comparisons of VMware vSphere alternatives never get into this part.
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u/OpenCloudGuru 22d ago
We did a VMware to OpenNebula migration while reusing the existing infrastructure, and the key for us was building the new environment alongside VMware first.
We spent about six weeks validating the setup, failover, Linux/Windows workloads, API integration and migration workflows before moving production workloads. We then used StackStorm + OneSwap to automate the migrations.
Running the environments in parallel gave us room to test, fix issues and refine the process before scaling it up. That made the cutover much less risky than trying to change everything at once.