How to move the vCops vApp between clusters

The vApp version of vCenter Operations Manager (vCops) consists of two virtual machines: the Analytics VM and the UI VM. This vApp has to be deployed in a DRS enabled vSphere cluster, because of this vApp requirement. This article will show you a method on how to move the vCops vApp between clusters.

(Note: Deploying the vApp on vSphere Essentials without DRS? Read this KB article).

In the rare case you want the vCenter Operations Manager vApp from one cluster to another cluster you have a challenge. Although a cold migration or vMotion between clusters is possible for virtual machines (taking into account the requirements), this is not a valid action for vApps.

So what’s the solution to move the vCops vApp?

Caution: I’ve only tried this in a lab environment, be careful with production environments.

Although you can clone a vApp, the problem is…this will cost you a lot of time. A quicker way is to first move the vCops virtual machines out of the vApp and move them to the target cluster, then clone the vApp and add the virtual machines to the vApp again. So:

1. Shutdown the vApp.
2. Move (cold migrate) the virtual machines from one cluster to the other. If the storage is shared between the clusters, this process will not cost a lot of time.
3. Clone the vApp to the other cluster.
4. Add the virtual machines to the vApp.
5. Remove the original vApp
6. Rename the copied vApp if required.
7. Boot the vApp…done!

That’s all!

Update: Bas Vinken reported he had to reconfigure the startup order for the moved vApp. Although it’s not too complicated, you might want to write the startup order down before migrating.