How to enable vMotion support on SonicWall NSv?

This guide provides sample configuration of a vMotion SonicWall NSv in a VMware environment. VMware vMotion enables the live migration of a running SonicWall NSv from one physical server to another with zero downtime, continuous service availability, and complete transaction integrity. It also provides transparency to users. VMotion is a key enabling technology for creating the dynamic, automated, and self- optimizing data center.

The following depicts the network topology for this sample deployment. In this sample deployment, there are two hosts, Host 150 (10.7.1.150) and Host 152 (10.7.1.152), which are members of Cluster 1 in the DataCenter 1. The vCenter server (10.7.1.100) manages DataCenter 1.

The following prerequisites must be met for this configuration:

• The vCenter server has been set up and the data center and cluster have been created.
• HOST 150 and HOST 152 are part of the cluster.
• A Gigabit Ethernet network interface card with a VMkernel port enabled for vMotion exists on both ESXi hosts.
• A SonicWall NSv is set up and able to handle traffic. NSv 10/25/50/100/200/300/400/800/1600 instances should be running 6.5.4.4-44v-21-1288 image which includes support for vMotion by default. NSv270/470/870 instances need to enable the vMotion option on the diag page. Diag Page on NSv270/470/870 can be accessed using URL: https://<MGMT IP of NSv>/sonicui/7/m/mgmt/settings/diag
  
  Below is the option that needs to be enabled for vMotion to work on NSv
  
  
  
  

To migrate the SonicWall NSv on the vCenter web portal:

1. Log into the vCenter web portal.
2. Verify the current location of the SonicWall NSv:
   
   a)   Navigate to the SonicWall NSv.
   b)   On the Summary tab, check the Host. In this example, the host is currently HOST 150 (10.7.1.150).
   c)   Navigate to Storage | Files. Check that the SonicWall NSv is located in the correct datastore. In this example, the datastore is currently Datastore 150, which is in HOST 150
   
   
3. Right-click the SonicWall NSv and select Migrate.
4. Configure the migration options:
   
   

   a)      For Select a migration type, select Change compute resource only. Click NEXT.

   b)     For Select a compute resource, select the desired new compute resource. In this example, HOST 152 (10.7.1.152) is selected. Click NEXT.

   c)      For Select storage, select the storage associated with the compute resource selected in step 5. In this example, Datastore 152 (as corresponds to HOST 152) is selected. Click NEXT.

   d)     For Select networks, select the desired destination network at the compute resource selected in step 5. In this example, the source network is at HOST 150, and the destination network is at HOST 152. Click NEXT.

   e)     For Select vMotion priority, select Schedule vMotion with high priority (recommended). Click NEXT.
   
   

5. Before initiating the migration, open the CLI for the SonicWall NSv to check on traffic during the migration. Enter the command ping 4.2.2.2 to check if traffic is stable. If no traffic is lost during migration and the SonicWall NSv SSH session does not break.
6. Click FINISH. After a few seconds, the SonicWall NSv is migrated to the new compute resources, in this case HOST 152.
7. Log into the vCenter web portal. Navigate to the SonicWall NSv. On the Summary tab, the Host is now the new compute resources, in this case HOST 152 (10.7.1.152).
8. Navigate to Storage | Files. It will show that the SonicWall NSv is now located in a new datastore.