Migration toolkit for virtualization: FAQs from the field

The migration toolkit for virtualization (MTV) is an included feature of Red Hat OpenShift and provides a suite of tools to migrate virtual machines (VMs) quickly and at scale. Given the heightened focus on virtualization, this becomes an increasingly popular option, allowing organizations to migrate their workloads safely and at speed, with the ability to consider modernization down the line.

This FAQ addresses the most common questions we hear from those exploring how to migrate their VMs to OpenShift.

Learn about OpenShift Virtualization

Is MTV a separate product from Red Hat OpenShift? 

MTV is included with OpenShift and is available in OperatorHub as an installable operator. It is not a separate product from OpenShift and can be enabled and managed through OperatorHub at no additional cost with an OpenShift subscription.

Why use MTV to migrate VMs to OpenShift Virtualization?

MTV is specifically designed to help users migrate VMs from their existing virtualization solution to OpenShift quickly and at scale. MTV provides an intuitive user interface and automated capabilities that allow it to discover and scan virtualized environments, provide suggestions and give users the ability to explore the modernization options available to them as they see fit. With MTV, users can migrate their VM workloads to anywhere they are running OpenShift—whether that be on-premises, in the cloud or at the edge.

Check out how to migrate VMs to OpenShift through this interactive demo.

What types of migrations does MTV support?

MTV supports both cold and warm migrations. Cold migrations tend to be faster but with longer downtimes whereas warm migrations take longer but have shorter downtimes. The type of migration used will depend on users’ needs including how much downtime they can handle for the VM and how quickly they need to complete the migration.

Red Hat’s default approach, cold migrations, require the VMs to be shut down entirely while data is copied, simplifying the migration. With warm migrations, data is copied during the precopy stage and the VMs are only shut down during the cutover stage so any remaining data can be copied to the target host. Typically, warm migrations are used only on critical workloads that need shorter downtime.

Additional details on the types of migrations and supported sources for the migrations can be found in our documentation.

How does Red Hat support large migrations?

For large migrations, additional VM migration efficiencies can be achieved by pairing MTV with other tools in the Red Hat product portfolio.

For migration at scale, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides automated workflows that help streamline the migration process including related infrastructure (networks, storage etc.). This improves consistency, completeness and accuracy while reducing manual work. Users can choose to automate as much of the migration as they like and use templates for repeated success. Once migrated, Ansible Automation Platform can also help with both Day 1 orchestration on VMs and related infrastructure (adding agents, connecting resources, etc.) as well as ongoing Day 2 operations such as provisioning new VMs and related infrastructure, ongoing updates and management and final sunsetting of unused VMs and resources. 

For additional automation adoption or migration assistance, you can contact Red Hat Consulting Services for real-world expertise, mentorship, training and consulting services. With Red Hat Services, the Red Hat Virtualization Migration Assessment provides a thorough review and tailored migration plan, facilitating a low-risk transition of traditional VMs onto OpenShift.

How should I conduct performance testing?

When planning your VM migration, Red Hat recommends conducting performance and benchmark testing for a smoother migration with minimal disruptions or performance degradation in the target environment.

There are many good reasons to conduct performance testing ahead of your VM migration to OpenShift, including:

• Verify that MTV and the platform are not misconfigured in such a way to negatively affect the performance
• Estimate how long it will take to migrate VMs in the environment and use that information to help project and plan
• Understand the breaking point as the load increases (typically either storage bandwidth or network bandwidth) and tune the migration batches accordingly

MTV performance depends heavily on the infrastructure it runs on. For more reliable results, the best time to run performance testing of MTV and the migration process is when you have built an environment that closely resembles production. If you are working with Red Hat Consulting Services, the best time to run the performance test is when non-production clusters are configured at the end of your foundation cluster deployment. Once performance testing is complete, you can begin the migration process to the OpenShift target environment.

What will determine the speed of my migration?

The speed of an individual migration is dependent on a number of factors including source provider, type of migration, network speeds, storage speeds, API read rates and VM disk sizes. Migration speed testing has been done specifically for VMware and it has been identified that migrations are completed more quickly when migrating multiple VMs concurrently. Learn more about the guidelines for maximum migration rates in the customer portal: Performance recommendations for migrating from VMware vSphere to OpenShift Virtualization.

Where can I find examples of Red Hat customers using the migration toolkit for virtualization?

Red Hat is consistently publishing stories to showcase the success of our customers. Below are a couple of MTV customer success stories.

MultiChoice: MultiChoice turned to OpenShift Virtualization to modernize its environment and support a streamlined migration and management of VMs. Through the use of MTV, “porting virtual machines from VMware into OpenShift was seamless. We took a full image of physical machines and mounted them on OpenShift Virtualization.”

SiriusXM: When SiriusXM decided to consolidate multiple virtual platforms to aid in a modernization project, “migration was the easiest part. Once you have MTV speaking to an API, it brings [the VMs] in quickly with little to no down time. It’s the right tool for the job. Once we have the network setup, and everything placed where it needs to be, the VM goes exactly where you need it to go  and starts working immediately. As far as migration goes, it’s a great tool.” - Nate Mason, Associate Director, Unix Systems Group SiriusXM

For more information, check out our customer success story repository for the latest and greatest reports on how Red Hat works with our customers to solve their IT challenges.