When you specify that a VM should be run-in-cloud (run on Compute Engine), Migrate for Compute Engine's caching technology predicts and streams storage as needed without expressly migrating it all. When you are ready to make the migrating VM run using storage on Compute Engine -- independent of its source platform -- you can migrate its storage.
You can start this full-storage migration at any point, even before launching the VM on Compute Engine.
In addition, by migrating storage you can launch additional VMs from the source image. For example, you might want an additional VM for redundancy or better network performance.
You can have Migrate for Compute Engine replicate VM writes replicate back on-premises if the original storage policy is set to write-back.
The time required for a full migration varies depending on the amount of data and available bandwidth.
Migrate on-premises source VM storage to the cloud
- On the vSphere Web Client, select the desired VM.
If the VM is still running on-premises, follow the steps in Running the Migration Wizard.
At this point, you can do one of the following:
- Right-click the VM and select Migrate for Google Compute Engine Operations > Start Storage Migration
- Click the Summary tab, and expand the Cloud Instance Information panel. In the Storage Migration row, click the green arrow and select Migrate VM storage to Cloud. You can also pause migrations from this screen.
When storage migration is complete, the VM is shown to be Fully Cached. In this state, all the VM's disks are stored in a Cloud Storage bucket and are accessible by your Cloud Extension (CE).
Viewing a Migration Throughput Graph
On the vSphere vCenter, select the desired Datacenter that hosts the cloud extension.
On the Monitor tab, select the Migrate for Google Compute Engine Service tab, choose the specific cloud extension and the time range to view the graph.