Recovering an incomplete migration

If an IBM® Power® Virtualization Center migration task is interrupted, it might be necessary to recover the migration manually using the two platform managers, the source and the destination (target) hosts.

Explanation

During the migration of a virtual machine between two hosts, there are some events that can interfere with the migration. Examples of what could interfere with migration include the following:
  • There may be trouble with the Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC) connection between the hosts.
  • Some resources on the destination host may be unavailable.
In some cases, PowerVC can stop the migration and restore the hosts to the condition they were in before the migration started. However, in some cases, PowerVC may not be able to detect and recover from the problem.

Resolution

If PowerVC is unable to detect a migration problem and recover, an administrator may need to recover using the platform manager. Follow these steps to manually recover an incomplete migration:
  1. Identify the source host and the migrating virtual machine by logging on to the platform manager for one of the hosts, preferably the source if it is known, and access the command line.
    1. Get the name of the current host using the following command: lssyscfg -r sys -F name. Make a note of the name of this host.
    2. List all of the virtual machines on this host to see if the virtual machine that was migrating indicates that this is the source host. Use the following command to do this: lslparmigr -r lpar -m hostname, where hostname is the name of the host from the previous step.
    3. Identify the migrating virtual machine and its source host.
      • For the migrating virtual machine, check for the following property: source_msp_name. This is the name of the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) virtual machine of the source host. If this does not correspond to the current host, log into the host of this VIOS, which will be the source.
      • Note the names of both the source host and the migrating virtual machine.
  2. Recover the migration on the source host by logging on to the platform manager for the source host and accessing the command line.
    1. Recover the migration by using the following command: migrlpar -o r -p vmname -m hostname, where vmname is the name of the migrating virtual machine and hostname is the name of the source host.
      Note: There are two possible outcomes for the migration recovery:
      • outcome-1-src: The migration reverts, leaving the virtual machine on the original source host.
      • outcome-2-dest: The migration completes, leaving the virtual machine on the destination (target) host.
    2. Determine the recovery status of the virtual machine on the source host.
      • List all of the virtual machines on the host to identify the source host. Use the following command to do this: lslparmigr -r lpar -m hostname.
        Note: Determine which outcome occurred:
        • outcome-1-src: The virtual machine migration state is Not Migrating.
        • outcome-1-dest: The virtual machine is no longer listed on the source host.
  3. Recover the virtual machine’s migration on the destination host by logging into the destination host and accessing the command line.
    1. If necessary, obtain the current host’s name using the command lssyscfg -r sys -F name.
    2. List the virtual machines on this host to find the one that was migrating. Use the command lsplparmigr -r lpar -m hostname where hostname is the name of the host from the previous step.
      • If the migrating virtual machine is not listed and the outcome determined in step 2 is outsome-1-src, you can stop. The recovery is complete.
      • If the migrating virtual machine is listed and the migration state is Not Migrating and the outcome in step 2 is outcome-2-dest, you can stop. The recovery is complete.
      • If the migrating virtual machine is listed and it is still showing a migration state, then proceed.
    3. Recover the migrating virtual machine migration using the command migrlpar -o r -p vmname -m hostname --force, where vnname is the name of the migrating virtual machine and hostname is the name of the destination host.
      Note: The destination host adds the -–force parameter.
    4. Verify that the recovery status of the virtual machine on the destination host is the reverse of the status on the source host.
      • List all of the virtual machines on the destination host using the command lslparmigr -r lpar -m hostname.
      • Verify that the correct outcome occurred:
        Note: This is reversed from the source host.
        • outcome-1-src: The virtual machine is no longer listed on the destination host.
        • outcome-1-dest: The virtual machine migration state is Not Migrating.
For details about recovering from a failed migration by using the hardware management console (HMC), see Recovering from a failed migration.