Which feature would allow for the non-disruptive migration of a virtual machine between two clusters in a single VMware vCenter instance?

vSphere vMotion is the core VMware feature that enables the live, non-disruptive migration of a running virtual machine's compute state (memory and CPU) from one ESXi host to another. This capability extends to migrations between hosts in different clusters, provided they are managed by the same vCenter Server instance. If the clusters do not share storage, vMotion can be combined with Storage vMotion to simultaneously migrate the VM's disk files, a process often called shared-nothing vMotion. This single operation moves the entire VM without downtime.

B. Cross vCenter Migration: This feature is specifically designed to migrate virtual machines between different vCenter Server instances, which is explicitly outside the scope of the question's "single VMware vCenter instance" constraint.

C. vSphere Storage vMotion: This feature migrates a virtual machine's disk files (VMDKs) from one datastore to another without downtime. It does not, by itself, migrate the compute resources between hosts or clusters.

D. vSphere Fault Tolerance: This is a high-availability feature that provides continuous availability by creating and maintaining a secondary, identical VM on a separate host. It is for instantaneous failover, not for planned migration.

1. VMware vSphere Documentation

"vCenter Server and Host Management" for vSphere 7.0

Section: "Migration with vMotion": "With vMotion

you can move powered-on virtual machines from one host to another... You can also move virtual machines across vCenter Server instances." This document clarifies that vMotion is the fundamental technology for live migration between hosts

which is the basis for moving between clusters. The ability to move between clusters is an extension of this core function.

2. VMware vSphere Documentation

"vCenter Server and Host Management" for vSphere 7.0

Section: "Virtual Machine Conditions and Limitations for vMotion": This section details the requirements for vMotion

including migrations between clusters. It states

"To migrate virtual machines with vMotion between vSphere sites

your environment must meet the requirements for networking

storage

and so on." This confirms vMotion is the feature used for inter-cluster migration within a vCenter.

3. VMware vSphere Documentation

"vCenter Server and Host Management" for vSphere 7.0

Section: "Migration of Virtual Machines": This section distinguishes the different migration types. It describes Storage vMotion as moving virtual disk files and vMotion as moving the running state of the VM. It also describes the combined vMotion (compute and storage) necessary for migrations between hosts that do not share storage

a common scenario when moving between clusters.