Move-VM

Name	Type	Description	Required?	Pipeline Input	Default Value
VM	VirtualMachine[]	Specifies the virtual machines you want to move to another location.	true	True (ByValue)
Destination	VIContainer	Specifies a folder, host, cluster, or a resource pool where you want to move the virtual machines. If a datacenter is specified for the Destination parameter, the virtual machines are moved to the datacenter's "vmFolder" folder. The "vmFolder" is a system folder and is guaranteed to exist. Passing values to this parameter through a pipeline is deprecated and will be disabled in a future release.	false	True (ByValue)
AdvancedOption	AdvancedOption[]	This parameter is only applicable when a DatastoreCluster object is passed to the Datastore parameter. Specifies one or more rules for the placement of the virtual machines that you want to relocate. To indicate that VMs should be stored on different datastores, pass an SdrsVMAntiAffinityRule object to the parameter. You can set more than one Storage DRS (SDRS) VM anti-affinity rules. To indicate that the VM disks should be stored on different datastores, pass an SdrsVMDiskAntiAffinityRule object to the parameter. You can set only one SDRS VM disk anti-affinity rule.	false	False
Confirm	SwitchParameter	If the value is $true, indicates that the cmdlet asks for confirmation before running. If the value is $false, the cmdlet runs without asking for user confirmation.	false	False
Datastore	StorageResource	Specifies the datastore or datastore cluster where you want to move the virtual machines. When you pass a datastore cluster to the Datastore parameter, you can also set the AdvancedOption parameter.	false	False
DiskStorageFormat	VirtualDiskStorageFormat	Specifies a new storage format for the hard disk of the virtual machine you want to move. This parameter is applicable only when moving a virtual machine to a different datastore, using the Datastore parameter. This parameter accepts Thin, Thick, and EagerZeroedThick values.	false	False
InventoryLocation	FolderContainer	Specifies a datacenter or a virtual machine folder where you want to move the virtual machine.	false	False
NetworkAdapter	NetworkAdapter[]	Specifies the virtual machine network adapters you want to migrate to a new port group.	false	False
PortGroup	VirtualPortGroupBase[]	Specifies the destination port groups for the specified virtual machine network adapters. The number of port groups should be one, or equal to the number of network adapters specified. If one port group and more than one network adapters are specified, all network adapters are migrated to the specified port group.	false	False
RunAsync	SwitchParameter	Indicates that the command returns immediately without waiting for the task to complete. In this mode, the output of the cmdlet is a Task object. For more information about the RunAsync parameter run "help About_RunAsync" in the VMware PowerCLI console.	false	False
Server	VIServer[]	Specifies the vCenter Server systems on which you want to run the cmdlet. If no value is passed to this parameter, the command runs on the default servers. For more information about default servers, see the description of Connect-VIServer.	false	False
VMotionPriority	VMotionPriority	Determines the priority that should be used for a vMotion operation.	false	False
WhatIf	SwitchParameter	Indicates that the cmdlet is run only to display the changes that would be made and actually no objects are modified.	false	False

-------------------------- Example 1 --------------------------

Get-VM -Name VM | Move-VM -Destination 10.23.112.235

Moves the virtual machine named VM from its current location to the host on IP address 10.23.112.235.

-------------------------- Example 2 --------------------------

Move-VM -VM VM -Destination Folder

Moves the virtual machine to a folder called Folder. Note that you are able to move virtual machines only to folders containing virtual machines (the 'blue' folders in the vSphere Client).

-------------------------- Example 3 --------------------------

Move-VM -VM 'MyVM' -Destination 'MyDestination'

Moves a powered-on virtual machine from one existing host to another, by using vMotion, passing parameters by name.

-------------------------- Example 4 --------------------------

Move-VM -VM 'MyVM' -Datastore 'MyDatastore'

Moves a powered-on virtual machine from one existing datastore to another, by using storage vMotion, passing parameters by name.

-------------------------- Example 5 --------------------------

$myDatastoreCluster1 = Get-DatastoreCluster -Name 'MyDatastoreCluster1'
Move-VM -VM 'MyVM1' -Datastore $myDatastoreCluster1

Moves the MyVM1 virtual machine to any datastore in the specified datastore cluster.

-------------------------- Example 6 --------------------------

$myDatastoreCluster1 = Get-DatastoreCluster -Name 'MyDatastoreCluster1'
$myVm2 = Get-VM -Name 'MyVM2'
$vmAntiAffinityRule = New-Object -TypeName VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.DatastoreManagement.SdrsVMAntiAffinityRule -ArgumentList $myVm2
Move-VM -VM 'MyVM1' -Datastore $myDatastoreCluster1 -AdvancedOption $vmAntiAffinityRule

Moves the MyVM1 virtual machine to the specified datastore cluster and sets a VM anti-affinity rule for the placement of the virtual machine. The MyVM1 virtual machine will be placed on any datastore in the specified datastore cluster that does not contain the MyVM2 virtual machine.

-------------------------- Example 7 --------------------------

$myVm1 = Get-VM -Name 'MyVM1'
$vmdks = Get-Harddisk -VM $myVm1
$myDatastoreCluster1 = Get-DatastoreCluster -Name 'MyDatastoreCluster1'
$vmdkAntiAffinityRule = New-Object -TypeName VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Types.V1.DatastoreManagement.SdrsVMDiskAntiAffinityRule -ArgumentList $vmdks
Move-VM -VM '$myVm1' -Datastore $myDatastoreCluster1 -AdvancedOption $vmdkAntiAffinityRule

Moves the MyVM1 virtual machine to the specified datastore cluster and sets a VM disk anti-affinity rule for the placement of the virtual machine. The disks of the MyVM1 virtual machine will be stored on different datastores in the specified datastore cluster.

-------------------------- Example 8 --------------------------

Get-VM -Name 'MyVM' -Server 'MyServer' | Move-VM -Destination 'NewHost' -Datastore 'DatastoreOnNewHost' -DiskStorageFormat 'Thin'

Moves a powered-off virtual machine to another datastore on another host and changes its disk storage format to thin.

-------------------------- Example 9 --------------------------

Connect-VIServer 'myVC1' -Username <username> -Password <pass>
Connect-VIServer 'myVC2' -Username <username> -Password <pass>

$vm = Get-VM 'myVM' -Location 'myVMhostOnVC1'
$destination = Get-VMHost 'MyVMhostOnVc2'
$networkAdapter = Get-NetworkAdapter -VM $vm
$destinationPortGroup = Get-VDPortgroup -VDSwitch 'myVDSwitchOnVC2' -Name 'myPortGroup'
$destinationDatastore = Get-Datastore 'MyDatastoreOnVc2'

$vm | Move-VM -Destination $destination -NetworkAdapter $networkAdapter -PortGroup $destinationPortGroup -Datastore $destinationDatastore

Moves the MyVM virtual machine from one vCenter Server system to another. Specifies myPortGroup as the destination port group and MyDatastoreOnVc2 as the destination datastore.

Note: This functionality works only against vSphere 6.0 and later environments.

PowerCLI Reference

Synopsis