First published on TECHNET on Jan 05, 2009
Internally and externally to Microsoft I have seen a number of issues around how to enabling full VMware Management using SCVMM. Most of the time people don’t understand that the reason they can’t create a VMware VM or migrate a VM from VMware environment to VMM library is because they have not done the necessary work to enable these operations.
Let me start off by talking about ESX hosts states in VMM.
When a VMware environment is first added to VMM 2008 you will notice that the ESX hosts are in an Ok(Limited) state. In a Ok (limited) there are certain operations that can be performed, but those operations are ….you guessed it..limited. When a host is moved into an Ok state then full VMware Management is enabled. Here is a table that provides you with information on what operations are allowed in an Ok (Limited) vs. OK.
Supported Virtual Machine Actions for ESX Server Hosts by Host Status
|
Virtual Machine Action
|
OK (Limited) Status
|
OK Status
|
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Start
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Stop
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Pause
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Save state
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Discard saved state
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Modify properties
|
Yes
While the host has OK (Limited) status, the following configuration updates are not allowed:
Attach an ISO image to a virtual DVD drive.
Attach an existing VMware virtual hard disk (.vmdk file) to the virtual machine.
Attach a VMware virtual floppy disk (.flp) to the virtual floppy drive.
|
Yes
|
|
New checkpoint
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Manage checkpoints
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Remove
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Migrate by using VMware VMotion
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Migrate across VirtualCenter server
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Store in the VMM library
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Clone within the same VirtualCenter
|
Yes
OK (Limited) restrictions:
In the VMM Administrator Console, VMM gives the host a zero rating during virtual machine placement, but you can select the host manually. No such restriction applies at the command line.
|
Yes
|
|
Clone on the same ESX Server host
|
Yes
OK (Limited) restrictions:
In the VMM Administrator Console, VMM gives the host a zero rating during virtual machine placement, but you can select the host manually.
In the Windows PowerShell – Virtual Machine Manager command shell, you must use a task group to create a new .vmdk file before you clone the virtual machine. You cannot clone an existing .vmdk file.
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