1.2 Supported Configurations

1.2.1 Supported Source Workloads

PlateSpin Migrate supports the following operating system families:

  • Microsoft Windows, including Windows 2008 R2 Clusters

  • Linux

The following topics provide more details:

NOTE:Not all workloads are supported on all target VM platforms. For details, see KB Article 7012976.

Supported Microsoft Windows Workloads

For the Windows platform, PlateSpin Migrate supports the following portability features:

  • Workload portability: Peer-to-peer migrations (P2V, V2V, V2P, P2P).

  • Peer-to-peer workload synchronization with Server Sync (P2V, V2V, P2P, V2P).

Table 1-3 Supported Microsoft Windows Workloads

Operating System

Remarks

Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2

 

Windows 8, 8.1

 

Windows 7

 

Windows XP SP1 and later

 

Windows 2000 Server SP4 with Update Rollup 1

 

Windows Server 2003 SP1 and later

 

Windows Server 2008 R2

Including domain controller (DC) systems and Small Business Server (SBS) editions

Windows Server 2008

Windows Vista, Business/Enterprise/Ultimate, SP1 and later

 

Windows Server 2003 Cluster

See Section 5.5, Migrating Windows Clusters.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Cluster

See Section 5.5, Migrating Windows Clusters.

NOTE:

  • Only NTFS files systems are supported.

  • Use only Platespin Migrate Client to migrate Windows Clusters.

PlateSpin Migrate supports the following localized versions of source Windows workloads:

  • English

  • French

  • German

  • Japanese

  • Chinese (traditional and simplified)

Workload Firmware (UEFI and BIOS) Support: PlateSpin Migrate mirrors the Microsoft support of UEFI or BIOS-based Windows workloads. It transfers workloads (both File and Block-based transfers are supported) from source to target while enforcing the supported firmware for the respective source and target operating systems. When any migration between UEFI and BIOS systems are initiated, Migrate analyzes the transition and alerts you about its validity.

NOTE:If you are migrating UEFI-based workload onto vSphere target container and you want to continue using the same firmware boot mode, you need to target a vSphere 5.0 container or newer.

The following are examples of Migrate behavior when doing conversion between UEFI and BIOS-based systems:

  • When transferring a UEFI-based workload to a VMware vSphere 4.x container (which does not support UEFI), Migrate transitions the workload’s UEFI firmware to BIOS firmware.

  • When migrating a UEFI-based source on a BIOS-based target, Migrate converts the UEFI system’s boot disks, which were GPT, to MBR disks. When migrating BIOS workload on a UEFI-based target, Migrate converts the BIOS system's boot disks, which are MBR, to GPT disks.

Supported Linux Workloads

For the Linux platform, PlateSpin Migrate the following portability features:

  • Live peer-to-peer and Offline workload portability support (P2P, P2V, V2P, V2V), including workload synchronization with Server Sync.

  • Support for EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, REISERFS, XFS, and NSS (OES 2 workloads) Linux file systems.

IMPORTANT:Workload imaging is not supported in Linux workloads:

Some of the supported Linux versions require that you compile the PlateSpin blkwatch module for your specific kernel. Those workloads are called out explicitly.

For information about the pre-compiled versions of the blkwatch driver for many non-debug Linux distributions (32-bit and 64-bit) that PlateSpin Migrate includes, see Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Migrate.

Table 1-4 Supported Linux Workloads

Distribution

Remarks

  • CentOS 4.x, 5.x, 6.x (For ESX)

  • CentOS 5.x, 6.x (For Hyper-V)

 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AS/ES/WS 4, 5, 5.6-5.11, 6, 6.1- 6.6, 7

 

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9, 10, 11 (SP1, SP2, SP3)

The SLES 11 SP2 (32-bit) with kernel 3.0.13-0.27-pae is not supported. The kernel for this version of SLES must be upgraded to 3.0.51-0.7.9-pae so that conversion works.

Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) 11, OES 11 SP1 and SP2

 

OES 2 (SP2 and SP3)

 

Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL)

  • Same level of support as that for workloads running RHEL.

  • Workloads using the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel are not supported.

Red Hat Linux 8

32-bit systems only

NOTE:

  • Linux-based source workloads must be running a Secure Shell (SSH) server.

  • Live transfer is supported for these Linux workloads:

    • RHEL 4, 5, 6.x, 7.0

    • SLES 9, 10, 11

  • Migration of encrypted volumes is not supported.

1.2.2 Supported Target Virtualization Platforms

The following is a list of supported virtualization platforms. For more details on supported configurations, as well as the most up-to-date list, see KB Article 7012976.

Table 1-5 Supported Target Virtualization Platforms

Platform

Notes

VMware vCenter 4.1, including Updates 1, 2, 3

 

VMware vCenter 5.0, including Update 1, Update2, and Update 3

 

VMware vCenter 5.1, including Update 1 and Update 2

 

VMware vCenter 5.5, including Update 1 and Update 2

 

VMware vCenter 6.0

 

VMware ESX 4.1, 4.1 Update 1, 4.1 Update 2, 4.1 Update 3

 

VMware ESXi 4.1, 4.1 Update 1, 4.1 Update 2, 4.1 Update 3, 5.0, 5.0 Update 1, 5.0 Update 2, and 5.0 Update 3, 5.1, 5.1 Update 1 and Update 2, ESXi 5.5, 5.5 Update 1 and 5.5 Update 2, ESXi 6.0

All ESXi versions must have a paid license; migration is unsupported with these systems if they are operating with a free license.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V

.

Citrix XenServer 6, 6.1, 6.2, 6.5

Supported through Semi-Automated Workload Virtualization Using the X2P Workflow.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Supported through Semi-Automated Workload Virtualization Using the X2P Workflow.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP3 XEN, SLES 11 SP3 KVM

Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.4 - 7 KVM

Supported through Semi-Automated Workload Virtualization Using the X2P Workflow.