The Best VMware Migration Tools to Fast-Track to OpenStack
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As IT managers grapple with evolving business needs and rising operational costs, many are considering alternatives to VMware for their virtualization and cloud strategies. Migrating off VMware can unlock cost savings, improve scalability, and provide access to modern cloud-native architectures. With Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, many IT managers are considering migrating to open source alternatives like OpenStack.
Migrating to another infrastructure platform, however, can be complex and fraught with challenges. Fortunately, a wide variety of open-source and commercial tools are available to facilitate this transition. In this blog, we’ll explore the best VMware migration tools to make your move to OpenStack, comparing features like warm migration support, high scalability, high extensibility for automation, and full end-to-end automation..
Why migrate from VMware?
For two decades, Infrastructure and Operations teams have depended on VMware’s proprietary software as their computing foundation. But given VMware’s purchase by Broadcom, many former VMware customers are seeking alternatives that provide more control than traditional closed-source proprietary software.
The leading open source alternative to the VMware architecture is OpenStack, which has evolved over a decade into a trusted infrastructure platform supported by a vibrant, world-wide ecosystem. OpenStack continues to gain momentum, with more than 40 million cores currently in production.
The primary reasons why organizations choose to migrate from VMware to OpenStack include:
Realize cost savings
Enable the freedom of open source
Enable a wide range of available infrastructure services and capabilities
Integrate existing systems
Run future-proof, open cloud solutions with guaranteed SLAs and enterprise-grade support
Many organizations view Broadcom’s takeover of VMware as a critical risk to their business, due to dramatic price hikes and layoffs, which have led to deteriorated support and higher cost of ownership.
How to migrate from VMware
The primary way to migrate from VMware to OpenStack is to replatform, which involves lifting and reshaping workloads. The target workloads are copied from the source environment, and minimal modifications (e.g., driver injection) are added to make it compatible with the target environment before migrating.
Before workload migration can begin, the OpenStack environments need to be prepared for application onboarding. This typically involves architecture design, pilot deployment and validation, and staff training. According to best practices, VMware to OpenStack migration includes five primary phases: Discovery, Planning, Implementation & Testing, Migration, and Validation.
VMware migration challenges
Organizations migrating workloads from VMware to OpenStack can face many challenges, such as:
Technical complexity
Lack of cloud expertise
Lack of time and resources
Security and compliance constraints
Executives’ and stakeholders’ lack of understanding of the value of migration
High cost of manual migration
To offset these challenges, various migration tools and services have emerged in the OpenStack ecosystem to ease and accelerate the migration process.
VMware migration best practices
Migrating from VMware to OpenStack involves careful planning to ensure minimal downtime and optimal configuration in the new environment. A key best practice is conducting a thorough assessment of your current VMware infrastructure. This includes evaluating the workloads, dependencies, network configurations, and security policies. Identifying critical workloads and prioritizing their migration helps to minimize risks.
Another best practice is to conduct rigorous testing of workloads/applications to validate that everything is running as expected, before executing the full migration. By running test workloads, you can identify potential issues, such as performance bottlenecks or configuration mismatches. It’s also essential to implement data backup and disaster recovery plans to safeguard critical information in case of unexpected failures during migration.
Automation tools and scripts can play a significant role in streamlining the migration process. A variety of tools help automate the conversion of VMs and ensure compatibility in the OpenStack environment. Also, proper user training and documentation are vital to ensure operational efficiency post-migration. Educating your team on OpenStack’s architecture, features, and management tools will help ensure smoother adoption and long-term success.
Best VMware migration tools: open source
virt-v2v is a widely used open-source conversion tool from the Red Hat community that’s designed to convert virtual machines from VMware to KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and other OpenStack-compatible formats. It features a simple CLI-based interface and works best for small to medium-scale migrations. virt-v2v is part of the well-known and widely-used libguestfs library and is the core tool for most of the solutions listed in this blog.
MigrateKit is an open-source CLI tool created by VEXXHOST that is specifically designed to streamline migration of VMs from VMware to OpenStack. It features easy setup and configuration, high scalability, API-driven automation, and full migration workflows.
Project vJailbreak, created by Platform9, focuses on simplifying VM conversion and workload migration to OpenStack and features cloud-native workflow integration. However, it is an experimental solution that lacks both scalability and automation for production.
Open Source VMware Migration Tools Comparison Table
| Tool Name | Automated Warm Migration Support | High Scalability | High Extensibility for Automation | Full End-to-End Automation |
| virt-v2v | X Requires user to implement the automation or manually trigger the different steps | X Small to medium-scale migrations | X Limited, requires manual scripting | ✓ For simpler scenarios, can provide full migration with a single command. Complex scenarios require additional steps for automation |
| MigrateKit by VEXXHOST | ✓ Yes | ✓ High scalability for cloud migrations | ✓ API-driven automation with OpenStack integration | ✓ Yes, supports full migration workflows |
| Project vJailbreak | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes, deployed in Kubernetes | X Limited automation capabilities | ✓ Yes |
Best VMware migration tools: commercial offerings
Hystax Acura, considered the industry leader, is a fully-automated migration tool with an intuitive, web-based interface, high scalability, and advanced automation capabilities.
Cloudbase Solutions Coriolis is an OpenStack service, integrated into the OpenStack catalog, that provides good scaling and automation capabilities.
CloudAny provides managed cloud migration services with end-to-end automation. It features a drag-and-drop interface.
zConverter specializes in seamless VM and data migration with easy configuration and deployment, high scalability, and strong automation capabilities.
Commercial VMware Migration Tools Comparison Table
| Tool Name | Automated Warm Migration Support | High Scalability | High Extensibility for Automation | Full End-to-End Automation |
| Hystax Acura | ✓ Yes | ✓ Highly scalable for enterprise workloads | ✓ Highly extensible for automation with API support | ✓ Yes, provides fully-automated migration workflows |
| Cloudbase Coriolis | ✓ Yes | ✓ Highly scalable for enterprise workloads | ✓ Extensive automation with API-driven orchestration | ✓ Yes, supports full automation for hybrid cloud migration |
| CloudAny | ✓ Yes | ✓ Scales well for hybrid and multi-cloud environments | ✓ Extensible with API support | ✓ Yes, provides end-to-end automation |
| zConverter | ✓ Yes | ✓ Highly scalable for enterprise workloads | ✓ Strong automation capabilities with orchestration support | ✓ Yes, supports complete automated migrations |
What to look for in a VMware migration tool
When evaluating tools for VMware-to-OpenStack migration, IT managers should consider the following factors:
Open Source vs. Commercial: Open-source tools provide flexibility, cost savings, and community-driven support, making them ideal for organizations with in-house migration expertise and the ability to customize solutions. However, they may require extensive manual intervention and scripting, which can increase complexity and migration time. On the other hand, commercial tools offer enterprise-grade automation, scalability, and dedicated support, ensuring smoother, faster, and more reliable migrations. While these solutions come with licensing costs, they reduce operational risks and require less in-house technical expertise.
Warm Migration vs. Cold Migration: If minimizing downtime is crucial for your organization, opt for tools that offer warm migration support.
High Scalability: This refers to a tool’s ability to handle increasing workloads efficiently, whether in terms of the number of VMs, data volume, or complexity of migration. Tools that scale well can support bulk migrations without impacting reliability, making them essential for large-scale infrastructure shifts.
High Extensibility for Automation: Automation extensibility determines how well a migration tool can be customized, integrated, or extended through APIs, scripting, or orchestration frameworks. The more extensible a tool is, the easier it becomes to automate repetitive tasks, streamline migrations that comply with corporate rules or requirements, and integrate with existing IT workflows.
Full End-to-End Automation: End-to-end automation ensures that the migration process—from assessment to final deployment—is fully orchestrated without requiring extensive manual intervention. This is critical for reducing human errors, improving migration efficiency, and minimizing downtime.
Think beyond the VMware migration tooling
Actual workload migration is only one step of the entire process. Before you begin to migrate, there are many things your team needs to do, from designing and deploying an OpenStack cloud to inventorying, assessing, and classifying your applications, planning your migration approach, and creating and testing a migration plan and automation pipeline.
For organizations that have limited time and expertise to create and execute a VMware migration strategy, Mirantis offers a well-defined and packaged Workload Migration Service that leverages our expert teams, tools (including Hystax Acura), and proven templates, processes, and automations to help application owners speed up application migration, while also lowering costs.
We provide multiple tools to accelerate different phases of migration, and can optimize automation pipelines for your individual workload requirements to successfully transition to Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes, our cloud native virtualization platform.
Conclusion
Migrating from VMware to OpenStack doesn’t have to be a daunting process. Whether you choose open-source or commercial options, the right tool can streamline your transition, minimize downtime, and ensure business continuity.
To learn more about what it takes to migrate from VMware to OpenStack, download the VMware Migration Playbook.
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