This page describes the high-level migration workflow for virtual machines with shared disks using OpenShift Migration Toolkit for virtualization.
Clustered applications using RDM (Raw Device Mapping) volumes, vVols or clustered VMDKS for shared storage require a two-stage migration. In stage 1, a single VM is migrated along with the shared virtual disk. In stage 2, the remaining VMs are migrated without re-migrating the shared volumes. After both stages, a reconnection step re-establishes the shared volume attachments.
The example in this section will be using RDMs, but this has been tested and validated with RDMs, vVols and clustered VMDKs on VMFS.
The example here will still require all of the steps in the previous topic, but will require slight changes to the migration plans to enable successful migrations of cluster shared virtual disks.
Prerequisites:
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If using the CLI for migration:
ocandkubectlinstalled and authenticated (oc whoamiconfirms active session) -
Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) operator installed in the target OpenShift cluster
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XCopy Offload enabled on the MTV controller
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Ephemeral image registry configured (required only for VDDK path, skip for XCopy or Vol copy offload)
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SCSI Persistent Reservation enabled if migrating Windows Failover Clustering VMs
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FORKLIFT_NAMESPACEenvironment variable set to the target Forklift project namespace
Test Configuration
6x Large-Disk Linux VMs sharing 2x 1 TB physical RDMs in multi-writer mode, representing a clustered application with shared data volumes. VDDK does not support physical RDMs. VDDK tests used virtual RDMs of equivalent size for comparison.
| Migration Step | VMFS / VDDK (Virtual RDM) | VMFS / XCopy (Physical RDM) |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1: First VM + shared RDMs (700 GB used) | 8h 20m 27s | 5m 15s |
| Stage 2: Remaining 5 VMs (no shared disks) | 6h 48m 45s | 5m 28s |