I currently have 2 VMware ESXi 4.1 hosts:
1. Dell PER905 - running 16 CPU's x 2.39GHz (cores) / Quad-Core AMD Opteron (tm) Processor 8378 (processor type)
2. Cisco UCS C260 M2 (BASE-2646) - running 20 CPU's x 2.393GHz (cores) / Intel (R) Xeon (R) CPU E72870 (processor type)
The main goal is to move 2 VM's from the Dell Host to the Cisco Host, the reason being is because Cisco Support has stated that the VM's require an Intel processor and not the AMD which they are currently on. I currently have a Cisco Call Manager Publisher and the Call Manager Subscriber living on the Dell Host, they were built (non-OVF) on this host some time ago. We started experiencing problems with them and eventually Cisco stated the above.
A couple of questions came to mind, can anyone please shed some light on them for me?
1. Can I migrate these 2 VM's from the AMD to the Intel, without it damaging/destroying the VM? Whatever the answer may be, can you please explain to me the why? Is the answer to the CPU migration dependent on the Guest OS or what? I ask because I've performed this successfully on a Windows Guest OS VM, but I guess it being Cisco makes me hesitant/question.
2. Would it be better to have each of the VM's rebuilt on the new host, rather than go through the migration for the CPU purposes?
3. What is the recommended way of backing these VM's up, prior to proceeding with the migration? I am not talking about backing up for the sake of the data within Call Manager, as I will complete a backup there first. I am asking more along the lines of - for the sake of the VM itself.