live migration

Live migration is the movement of a virtual machine from one physical host to another while continuously powered-up. When properly carried out, this process takes place without any noticeable effect from the point of view of the end user. Live migration allows an administrator to take a virtual machine offline for maintenance or upgrading without subjecting the system's users to downtime.

One of the most significant advantages of live migration is the fact that it facilitates proactive maintenance. If an imminent failure is suspected, the potential problem can be resolved before disruption of service occurs. Live migration can also be used for load balancing, in which work is shared among computers in order to optimize the utilization of available CPU resources.

Learn more about P2V, V2V and V2P migration

Virtual machine live migration boosts business continuity, disaster recovery: Live migration keeps applications available by moving virtual machines to different physical host servers.
Virtual server migration guide: Virtual server migrations are critical to a virtual deployment's success. This guide covers server migration basics and how to execute them in Hyper-V and VMware environments.
	Virtualization management webcasts by Anil Desai: This webcast series offers expert advice on choosing how and what to virtualize, virtual machine profiling and load distribution, creating a virtual machine library and more.
Virtual-to-physical conversions: Why and how: Physical-to-virtual conversions are well-known in the virtualization field; virtual-to-physical, or V2P, may be less so. But application vendor support calls may require them.
Open source Xen provides cost-effective P2V conversions: For cost-conscious IT managers, open source Xen provides P2V conversion tools that rival proprietary offerings. Here's how to conduct a P2V conversion in Xen and boot the new VM.
Deploying and migrating virtual machines faster with VSM tools: Migrating and deploying virtual machines can be faster and less of a hassle with virtual systems management tools such as inventory management and patch distribution software.

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More resources from around the web: - Engineers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen describe the technical aspects of live migration.

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