Storage processing accelerates VM migrations in the migration toolkit for virtualization 2.12

We continue to see many organizations accelerate their infrastructure modernization plans and choose Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization as their future-ready foundation for traditional virtual machine (VM) workloads. That being said, when you’re tasked with moving hundreds or thousands of legacy VMs into a cloud-native environment, speed and security are critical.

The latest release of Red Hat’s migration toolkit for virtualization is version 2.12, and is in line with Red Hat OpenShift 4.22. This new release focuses on advanced storage processing, extending source provider support, and AI optimizations. We are encouraging organizations to shift away from slow network migrations and execute those migrations directly onto intelligent storage layers. This release introduces support for NetApp Shift Toolkit to redefine how fast a migration can actually be.

Speed up your migrations with NetApp Shift

If you are running your source VMs on NetApp ONTAP storage, the NetApp Shift Toolkit integration represents a major milestone when it comes to accelerating your migration timeline. Red Hat customers can now manage their VM migrations within the migration toolkit for virtualization GUI, while Shift Toolkit executes the conversion behind the scenes. This allows customers to use familiar Red Hat tools while benefiting from the capabilities of Shift Toolkit. 

Shift Toolkit performs the heavy lifting at the storage virtualization layer. It creates an instant clone of your file system within the same storage array by saving data chains across different parts of the drive. Because the source hypervisor can still interact with the original VM while any target modifications are stored separately, you can perform fast, zero-copy cold migrations. The original file is frozen in place, meaning there is no need to stop and copy data across the wire. This results in near-zero downtime and allows you to move workloads in a fraction of the time that a traditional migration would take. The process is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. VM conversion workflow from VMware ESXi to Red Hat OpenShift

To learn more about how this collaboration helps organizations modernize their enterprise infrastructure, read the post on the topic on the NetApp blog.

Storage offload for warm migrations is now generally available

Building on our focus to reduce business disruption during infrastructure transitions, we are pleased to announce that storage offload for warm migrations is now generally available (GA).

Warm migrations help minimize downtime by copying the bulk of a VM's data while it is still actively running, leaving only a small window of changes to sync during the final cutover. 

With this feature reaching GA, migration toolkit for virtualization can now hand off snapshot processing directly to supported enterprise storage arrays. This offloads the resource tax from your hypervisor, maintains data integrity, and narrows the final cutover window to an absolute minimum.

Newly supported source providers

While optimizing migration speed is critical, we are also focused on giving organizations more flexibility in where they start their modernization journeys. Version 2.12 for the migration toolkit for virtualization expands its provider ecosystem with early support for 2 major enterprise platforms:

• Microsoft Hyper-V (Technology Preview): Organizations looking to transition away from Hyper-V environments can now begin testing direct migration pathways into OpenShift Virtualization.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 (Technology Preview): With AWS EC2 support in Tech Preview, teams looking to migrate within the AWS public cloud on OpenShift on AWS clusters can easily do so.

Continuing to optimize migration toolkit for virtualization with AI

As organizations look for ways to streamline operations, the migration toolkit for virtualization team is continuing to explore how AI can simplify complex migration planning and execution.

Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed integration

Work has begun to the integrate migration toolkit for virtualization with Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed, our generative AI-powered virtual assistant. We are currently feeding comprehensive documentation, troubleshooting resources, and migration best practices directly into the Red Hat Lightspeed AI engine. This lays the foundation for users to use natural-language queries to troubleshoot migration blocks and receive real-time recommendations.

Smarter migrations with Model Context Protocol 

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for migration toolkit for virtualization is now available in Developer Preview in version 2.12. This MCP server extends AI assistants’ ability to help plan your VM migrations and offer analysis through precise documentation and resources. The MCP server connects to your LLM AI assistant of choice to help you navigate the complexities of migrating your traditional VMs to OpenShift Virtualization. 

Take the next step with migration toolkit for virtualization 2.12

Whether you want to dramatically reduce migration timelines with NetApp Shift, minimize downtime with storage offload, or explore new migration pathways, migration toolkit for virtualization 2.12 provides the capabilities needed to modernize with confidence. Learn more about what else is new in this latest version:

• Learn all about migration toolkit for virtualization 2.12 in the documentation
• Learn how to run Shift Toolkit in the documentation 
• Read more about Shift Toolkit on the NetApp blog