Accelerate virtual machine migrations with the migration toolkit for virtualization 2.9

The latest migration toolkit for virtualization (MTV) 2.9 release introduces pivotal features to minimize business disruptions and accelerate migrations to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. Initiated by certified storage partner Hitachi Vantara, MTV 2.9 includes a storage offloading functionality for cold migrations. As a primary driver for the development of this feature, Hitachi Vantara is the first to have their offload driver reach technology preview. This feature delegates the data copy process to the underlying storage systems rather than using network resources to reduce downtime significantly for production workloads. Let's dive into what this means for virtualization administrators. 

Streamline migrations directly through storage systems  

In a joint effort with Hitachi Vantara, MTV’s new storage offloading feature works to make the migration process as fast as possible with an increasing number of Red Hat certified storage partners. Instead of relying on traditional IP-based data transfers that can clog networks, this new function offloads the heavy lifting of the disk copy process from the network to the underlying storage systems. The storage offloading feature becomes increasingly relevant for larger, multi-terabyte disks, as more data is able to transfer to the underlying storage system for faster migrations. Rather than MTV reading the data, sending it over the network and writing it to a new location, the storage array working jointly with MTV essentially transforms the source virtual disk (for example, a VMware VMDK) into an OpenShift Persistent Volume format within the array. Once the volume is available to OpenShift, MTV converts the disk to OpenShift Virtualization format, and then the VM can be started. Any original source VMDK is also available in the event that you need to return to the source. 

Delegating the work to the storage system, not the network preserves CPU and memory for critical workloads. This is accomplished through the new storage offload plugin module, in which each certified storage partner can contribute through the Forklift open source community. Ultimately, this feature empowers organizations and the community to execute fast and efficient migrations of their critical workloads by taking advantage of existing resources.

The benefits of the storage offloading feature are significant:

• Minimized business disruption: With cold migration windows potentially accelerated by up to 10x based on Hitachi’s internal testing, what might have been a ten-hour migration can be transformed into a single hour. Services and applications are back online faster, leading to minimal business disruption. Support for warm migration is in progress and should be released later this year.
• Lower project risk and increased confidence: Large-scale migrations from one platform to another can be complex and inherently risky. By simplifying and accelerating the process, the risk of migration errors, data loss, or extended downtime is significantly reduced. This method provides a time and resource efficient manner to move VMs, ensuring a similar level of protection/business continuity post migration.
• Reduce network load and improve IT efficiency: Offloading the work to the storage array consumes fewer network and server resources. This frees up critical infrastructure for other business operations and allows IT teams to accomplish major infrastructure goals with less manual effort and oversight.

How Hitachi Vantara supports storage offloading with MTV

Hitachi Vantara is one of the first certified storage partners to support this MTV feature and was a key leader in the feature's development. Hitachi and Red Hat are both committed contributors of the open source community, and the storage offloading capability is open source and integrated into MTV 2.9. This contribution enables enterprises with external SANs to accelerate and simplify their VM migration journey to OpenShift Virtualization.

Users leveraging Hitachi Vantara can take full advantage of MTV's storage offloading to migrate up to 10 times faster than with traditional methods. This innovative approach can also be extended to provide the same migration advantages to non-Hitachi or older arrays.

What else is new in MTV 2.9?

• Raw copy mode: With raw copy mode, you can now import a VM that fails during conversion (for example, due to an unsupported guest operating system) by performing a raw disk copy without guest OS conversion. The feature enables encrypted disks to be migrated without requiring a password. This feature is useful in environments where strict compatibility with guest OS types is not guaranteed, and offers a fallback strategy to preserve and access VM content even when an automated migration fails.
• Allow users to change the non-conformant VM names: You can now rename a VM during migration planning if your original name does not meet the target environment's naming conventions. This can help prevent migration failures by allowing name adjustments directly in the plan creation workflow.
• Persist nesting when migrating from VMware: You can now retain the nested virtualization setting of a VM during migration. More specifically, if a VM is configured to support nested virtualization in the source environment, this configuration is preserved in the destination environment post-migration.
• Upgraded UI for simpler migrations: Updates to the navigation, overview page, the create migration plan wizard, and more provide a streamlined user experience when creating, executing, and monitoring your migrations. 

Learn more

New features in MTV 2.9 make it easier than ever to migrate a VM to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. Its enhancements simplify transition, minimize business disruption, and improve IT efficiency and user experience. Learn more about it:

• MTV 2.9 product documentation
• Learn more about how Hitachi Vantara is leveraging storage offloading
• Storage offloading demo, Storage offloading presentation at DevConf.CZ 2025
• MTV interactive demos: Cold Migrations, Warm Migrations, VM Reconfiguration with Pre- and Post-hooks