How to Move (Live) vApps Across Org VDC

VMware Cloud Director has ~~secret~~ not well known API only feature that allows to move vApps across Org VDCs while they are running.

This feature has been purposefully made for the NSX-V to NSX-T Migration Tool, but can be used for other use cases hence the reason here to shed more lights on it.

API method POST /VDC/{id}/action/moveVApp.

The API method is using the target Org VDC endpoint with quite elaborate payload that must describe which vApp is being moved, how will the target network configuration look like (obviously parent Org VDC networks will change) and what storage, compute or placement policies will be used by every vApp VM at the target.

API POST call is executed against target VDC. Example, we want to move server from VDC A to VDC B, then API call will be POST /VDC/<VDC B>/action/moveVApp.

API Headers

Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.MoveVAppParams+xml
Accept: application/*+xml;version=36.2

API Body

You should describe:

vApp UID
Target network name and parameters
VM UID
Target network name and parameters
Storage profile

Parameters can be extended by – storage, compute or placement policies will be used by every vApp VM at the target.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MoveVAppParams xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" xmlns:ns7="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1" xmlns:ns8="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" xmlns:ns9="http://www.vmware.com/schema/ovf">
  <Source href="https://vcd.tetcloud.com/api/vApp/vapp-07957434-e638-491d-871e-83297a689f2a"/>
  <NetworkConfigSection>
    <ns7:Info>The configuration parameters for logical networks</ns7:Info>
       <NetworkConfig networkName="tetcloud-default-internal-network">
             <Configuration>
        <IpScopes>
            <IpScope>
                <IsInherited>false</IsInherited>
                <Gateway>192.168.100.1</Gateway>
                <Netmask>255.255.255.0</Netmask>
                <SubnetPrefixLength>24</SubnetPrefixLength>
                <Dns1>1.1.1.1</Dns1>
                <Dns2>8.8.8.8</Dns2>
                <IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
                <IpRanges>
                    <IpRange>
                        <StartAddress>192.168.100.2</StartAddress>
                        <EndAddress>192.168.100.100</EndAddress>
                    </IpRange>
                </IpRanges>
            </IpScope>
        </IpScopes>
        <FenceMode>natRouted</FenceMode>
        <RetainNetInfoAcrossDeployments>false</RetainNetInfoAcrossDeployments>
        <SubInterface>false</SubInterface>
        <DistributedInterface>false</DistributedInterface>
        <GuestVlanAllowed>false</GuestVlanAllowed>
        <Connected>true</Connected>
        <DualStackNetwork>false</DualStackNetwork>
    </Configuration>
            <IsDeployed>true</IsDeployed>
        </NetworkConfig>
  </NetworkConfigSection>
  <SourcedItem>
    <Source href="https://vcd.tetcloud.com/api/vApp/vm-71eebd42-54dc-41f3-86d5-da9de25c4eff"/>
    <InstantiationParams>
      <NetworkConnectionSection>
        <ns7:Info>Network Connection Section</ns7:Info>
        <PrimaryNetworkConnectionIndex>0</PrimaryNetworkConnectionIndex>
                <NetworkConnection network="tetcloud-default-internal-network" needsCustomization="false">
                    <NetworkConnectionIndex>0</NetworkConnectionIndex>
                    <IpAddress>192.168.100.10</IpAddress>
		            <IpType>IPV4</IpType>
        		    <IsConnected>true</IsConnected>
            		<MACAddress>00:50:56:01:18:1c</MACAddress>
            		<IpAddressAllocationMode>POOL</IpAddressAllocationMode>
            		<SecondaryIpAddressAllocationMode>NONE</SecondaryIpAddressAllocationMode>
            		<NetworkAdapterType>VMXNET3</NetworkAdapterType>
                </NetworkConnection>
      </NetworkConnectionSection>
    </InstantiationParams>
    <StorageProfile href="https://vcd.tetcloud.com/api/vdcStorageProfile/0c64bbc9-5d08-4f57-9c00-ec5720c61e00"/>
  </SourcedItem>
   </MoveVAppParams>