Hot Migration?

[chopper563]

My understanding of the hot migration for V2V / P2V Converter that Starwind claim is to be able to migrate the source VM even when is power on right?
What if during the conversion and migration, there is still new data going into the VM/server will it able to successfully and confirm all the data will be migrated over?

Because to prevent this from happening, the safest plan is to power off the VM and then use the tool to convert and migrate.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Because to prevent this from happening, the safest plan is to power off the VM and then use the tool to convert and migrate.

You are right. V2V does not turn off the "source" after migration; it continues running.
We plan to automate the process somehow.

[chopper563]

Do you know what will happen if during the conversion and migration, there is new data going into the server/VM, will it able to migrate it over?
Because if require to shutdown, than it will require downtime especially on production environment.

Thanks!

[yaroslav (staff)]

Do you know what will happen if during the conversion and migration, there is new data going into the server/VM, will it able to migrate it over?

When the living VM is converted, a snapshot is taken. The altered data lives in the snapshot. That snapshot gets merged after conversion is over so no changes are lost. The moment conversion is over, you get up-to-date data on the source and destination. The former (i.e., source) stays up and may have its data changed while the latter is down and becomes outdated the moment conversion is over.

Because if require to shutdown, than it will require downtime especially on production environment.

Given the last sentence, yes, you should shut down the source VM if you feel that it is not possible to turn it off immediately after the conversion is over.