Migrate your existing vSphere environment to a robust IaaS cloud environment based on Apache CloudStack and KVM
This guide is designed for VMware users who want to migrate their existing vSphere environment to a robust IaaS cloud environment based on Apache CloudStack and the KVM Hypervisor, ensuring a smooth, low-friction migration journey. Migration from VMware ESXi hosts on vCenter to a KVM hypervisor environment in Apache CloudStack is a key step towards eliminating vendor lock-in and decreasing licensing costs.
Upon completing this guide, users will emerge with a comprehensive understanding of how to manage a versatile cloud infrastructure with CloudStack. Users will also be able to seamlessly handle an environment fully managed by CloudStack’s unified UI or API.
Apache CloudStack stands out as a VMware alternative for its comprehensive features that meet flexibility and long-term reliability needs. In light of the long-term uncertainties in the virtualisation market, following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, Apache CloudStack has emerged as a serious open-source VMware alternative and a competitor for organisations of all sizes seeking viable alternatives.
CloudStack is compatible with various hypervisors. Migration from VMware ESXi hosts on vCenter to a KVM hypervisor environment in Apache CloudStack is recommended
It ensures that multiple users or organisations can securely share the same physical infrastructure while maintaining privacy and security.
CloudStack is designed to minimise downtime, ensuring that services are always accessible.
It streamlines the management of compute, network, and storage components, making it easier for organizations to manage their cloud resources.
Apache CloudStack is an open-source solution, powered by an active community. Typically, there are 2 major releases per year and the project roadmap follows the needs and requirements of its users.
CloudStack is a free to use solution, and it ensures your profitability in the long-term.
Planning your migration from VMware to Apache CloudStack is a process that involves several steps to ensure a smooth transition:
When planning a migration from a VMware-based infrastructure to Apache CloudStack and
KVM hypervisor, the first step is to outline a design architecture. This design will illustrate the placement and interaction of key components in the network, ensuring that everything happens as expected during migration.
Need help in starting with Apache CloudStack? Download the Apache CloudStack PoC Guide
Starting with CloudStack 4.19, an automation migration tool was introduced to speed up migration of Instances from VMware to CloudStack running KVM Hypervisor. In essence, this tool leverages the virt-v2v utility, which should be present on KVM hosts, to facilitate the migration process. When a user selects a VMware Instance for migration, the tool initiates a sequence of operations that begin with a connection to vCenter.
ShapeBlue is the largest independent integrator of CloudStack technologies globally and are specialist in designing and implementing IaaS cloud infrastructures for both private and public cloud implementations. Our services include consulting about your VMware to CloudStack migration, migration design, CloudStack design and deployment, migration design documentation and full support during your migration journey.
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Download a step-by-step guide to migrate your existing vSphere environment to a robust IaaS cloud environment based on Apache CloudStack and the KVM Hypervisor, ensuring a smooth, low-friction migration journey.
