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I'm working on migrating VMs from esxi 4.1 to esxi 5.5.

I was wondering if deleting the .lck file of a VM in the 4.1 datastore would let the 5.5 (connected to that same datastore) take ownership of the VM (by importing it)?

It would allow me to migrate it without having to restart the VM (to take back the ownership).

HopelessN00b
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PaKempf
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  • Do not do this. – ewwhite Jun 10 '14 at 14:09
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    `1.` Where do people come up with these ideas? `2.` You probably couldn't delete the .lck file even if you tried. – joeqwerty Jun 10 '14 at 17:23
  • @joeqwerty [Actually, sometimes you have to delete the `.lck` file manually](http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2037507)... but that's more of a troubleshooting step and less of a replacement for vMotion. – HopelessN00b Jun 11 '14 at 19:59
  • @HopelessN00b - True and I'm aware of that but this falls outside of that scenario. Thanks for the insight and input nonetheless. – joeqwerty Jun 11 '14 at 20:04

1 Answers1

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That's not how you migrate virtual machines between ESXI hosts, no.

The proper, supported way to move VMs between hosts without a reboot (and the only way that's likely to result in working VMs once you're done) is to use vMotion. Your specific setup and licensing entitlements will dictate a lot of the details, but the easiest way is generally to create a mixed cluster (add the new ESXi 5.5 host(s) to your existing cluster), vMotion, and then decommission or upgrade your ESX 4.1 hosts.

HopelessN00b
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