Migrating from On-Premises VMware Cloud Director Availability to the cloud

Last update: May 30 2026

Migration from an on-premises vSphere infrastructure can be performed from VMware Cloud Director® or VMware vCenter Server®. For vSphere versions 5.5, 6.0, migration can only be performed via the Cloud Director interface.

1. Create a new migration.
2. Configure the migration.

1. Create a new migration

vCenter

1. In vCenter, in the Menu, select Cloud Availability.
2. Go to the Outgoing Replications section.
3. Click ( **New Migration **).

Cloud Director

To perform a migration from an on-premises VMware Cloud Director Availability installation, the Allow Access from Cloud parameter must be enabled. The migration can be performed by an administrator account.

1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based cloud → section Cloud Director.
2. In the More menu, select Availability.
3. Go to the Incoming Replications section.
4. Click ALL ACTIONS → New Migration.

2. Configure the migration

1. Enter the organization administrator credentials in administrator-<s-xxxx>@<s-xxxx> format, where <s-xxxx> is the organization name.
2. In the vCenter VMs step, select the virtual machine you want to replicate.
3. In the Source VMs and vApps step, in the Destination Site field, click Select site and choose the VMware Cloud Director site.
4. In the Settings step, set a convenient time for the first synchronization.
5. To save disk space on the remote site, exclude unnecessary disks.
6. If a previously imported copy of the virtual machine being replicated already exists on the remote site, select it to reduce traffic.
7. Wait for the initial data synchronization to complete.
8. Click ( **Migrate **).
9. Select a network for the virtual machine copy being started on the remote site.
10. Consolidate the virtual machine disks.
11. Configure the virtual machine to power on after migration.
12. To delete a replication task, in the Outgoing Replications section, select it and in the ALL ACTIONS menu, choose Delete replication.