Automatic transfer of workload configuration

A method for automatically transferring configuration of one or more virtual machines from an old server to a new server, the method comprising:

• receiving input to a configuration transfer wizard, the input selecting one or more virtual machines that are executing on the old server;
• automatically determining configuration settings of each of the one or more virtual machines;
• creating a staged virtual machine on the new server for each of the one or more virtual machines;
• adapting each staged virtual machine on the new server while each virtual machine continues to execute on the old server, the adapting comprising modifying the determined configuration settings for each staged virtual machine such that, once deployed, each staged virtual machine is configured to function in a similar manner on the new server as the corresponding virtual machine functioned on the old server;
• stopping each virtual machine on the old server;
• and
• deploying each staged virtual machine on the new server.

A method, performed by a configuration transfer wizard, for automatically transferring configuration of one or more virtual machines from an old cluster to a new cluster, the method comprising:

• receiving user input, to the configuration transfer wizard, the user input specifying a plurality of virtual machines that are executing on an old cluster, the user input requesting that the configuration of each of the virtual machines be transferred to the new cluster;
• accessing, by the configuration transfer wizard, the old cluster to obtain configuration settings for each of the virtual machines, the configuration settings including:
• mappings to one or more volumes of a clustered file system on the old cluster that the virtual machines use to access files;
• and
• mappings to one or more virtual network switches that the old cluster uses to connect to a physical network;
• for each virtual machine in the old cluster, the configuration transfer wizard creating a staged virtual machine in the new cluster;
• accessing, by the configuration transfer wizard, the new cluster to identify one or more volumes of a clustered file system on the new cluster to be used by the staged virtual machines when executed on the new cluster, and to identify one or more virtual network switches that the new cluster uses to connect to the physical network;
• and
• modifying the configuration settings obtained for each of the virtual machines in the old cluster and applying the modified configurations settings to the corresponding staged virtual machine in the new cluster, modifying the configuration settings including:
• modifying the mappings to the one or more volumes of the cluster file system on the old cluster so that the modified mappings map to one or more volumes of the cluster file system on the new cluster that the staged virtual machines will use to access files;
• and
• modifying the mappings to the one or more virtual network switches that the old cluster uses to connect to the physical network so that the modified mappings map to one or more virtual network switches that the new cluster uses to connect to the physical network.