> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xloud.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Migration User Guide

> Register a VMware source, discover workloads, run preflight checks, execute cold and warm migrations, and finish with cutover using the Xloud Dashboard.

## Overview

XMS (Xloud Migration Suite) moves virtual machine workloads from VMware vSphere
and standalone ESXi hosts into Xloud. This guide walks through the end-to-end
flow: register a source, discover workloads, validate compatibility, run cold
or warm migrations, and complete cutover.

<Note>
  **Prerequisites**

  * An active Xloud account with appropriate permissions
  * Access to the **Xloud Dashboard** or CLI configured with credentials
  * API credentials sourced (`source openrc.sh`)
</Note>

***

## Topics

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Register a VMware Source" icon="plug" href="/services/migration/user-guide/register-source" color="#197560">
    Add a vCenter or ESXi endpoint to the Migration panel with credentials
    and optional datacenter scope.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Discover Workloads" icon="search" href="/services/migration/user-guide/discover-workloads" color="#197560">
    Inventory VMs, disks, networks, and guest metadata through the vSphere API.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Preflight Assessment" icon="clipboard-check" href="/services/migration/user-guide/preflight" color="#197560">
    Validate each candidate workload against Xloud compatibility rules before
    submitting a migration job.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cold Migration" icon="power" href="/services/migration/user-guide/cold-migration" color="#197560">
    Power off the source VM and migrate all disks in a single pass — the
    simplest path for workloads that can tolerate a maintenance window.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Warm Migration" icon="rotate-cw" href="/services/migration/user-guide/warm-migration" color="#197560">
    Start a full sync while the source VM remains online, then replicate
    only changed blocks until you schedule the cutover.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cutover" icon="zap" href="/services/migration/user-guide/cutover" color="#197560">
    Trigger the final sync and switch a warm migration job to its target
    Xloud instance.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Post-Migration Validation" icon="circle-check" href="/services/migration/user-guide/post-migration" color="#197560">
    Verify the migrated instance boots, has network connectivity, and mounts
    all original disks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Troubleshooting" icon="wrench" href="/services/migration/user-guide/troubleshooting" color="#197560">
    Diagnose discovery failures, stalled syncs, stuck cutovers, and guest
    boot issues after migration.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Choosing Cold or Warm

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Use Cold Migration When" icon="power" color="#197560">
    The workload tolerates a maintenance window, the disks are small, and
    you want the simplest possible flow — one click, one pass, done.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Use Warm Migration When" icon="rotate-cw" color="#197560">
    The workload must stay online until cutover, disks are large, or the
    initial sync would exceed an acceptable downtime window.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={4}>
  <Card title="Admin Guide" icon="settings" href="/services/migration/admin-guide" color="#197560">
    Deployment, network ports, storage planning, and credential management
  </Card>

  <Card title="Block Storage" icon="hard-drive" href="/services/storage/user-guide" color="#197560">
    Understand volume types and quotas that apply to migrated disks
  </Card>

  <Card title="Xloud Compute" icon="server" href="/services/compute/user-guide" color="#197560">
    Manage migrated workloads as Xloud Compute instances
  </Card>

  <Card title="Infrastructure Monitoring" icon="activity" href="/services/monitoring/user-guide" color="#197560">
    Monitor migrated workloads with XIMP dashboards and alerts
  </Card>
</CardGroup>