Move VMware "cluster" to new datacenter

[Berg0]

Can anyone tell me the impact/procedure of moving a cluster object to a new datacenter?

Before:

Datacenter1
-cluster 1
Datacenter2
-cluster 2

After:

Datacenter1
-cluster 1
-cluster 2

cluster 1 is a production cluster, cluster 2 is the development enviroment. Each has 3 ESX hosts. Any risk involved in making the change? Can't find much in the way of documentation, all the comes up on a search is vMotion between datacenter articles.

 

[Child of Wonder]

A Datacenter in vSphere is simply a container to represent resources that are present at two physically different locations so, no, so long as IP addresses, vSwitches, etc. are all staying the same it won't hurt anything. However, depending on what backup provider you use, it may be looking to backup your VMs in Datacenter2 - Cluster2 so be aware of that.

You can't VMotion between Datacenters and I just tried dragging my cluster at home from my current "Home" Datacenter to a new Datacenter I called "Test" and got an error saying "This operation is not supported."

You may have to create Cluster2 in Datacenter1, disconnect each host from vCenter, then reconnect it under the new Cluster2.

 

[The_Mage18]

You may have to create Cluster2 in Datacenter1, disconnect each host from vCenter, then reconnect it under the new Cluster2.

Score 1 for accuracy. This is how you have to do it. You don't need to necessarily shut down the VMs or put the hosts in maintenance first, just right click and disconnect the host, them remove it. After that go to your new cluster and add host. We've been using this method to "live migrate" VMs from one physical data center to another, after moving the VM to a shared LUN between the data centers.