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PERCONA MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATION

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Migrate from VMware to alternative platforms

Migrate your PMM Server deployment from VMware to supported platforms before VMware support is removed in PMM 3.6.0 (expected January 2026).

Prerequisites and planning

Before starting the migration:

  • Check if your VMware PMM instance is running PMM 3.x. Upgrade from PMM2 if needed.
  • Check for sufficient storage space for backups (at least 2x your current /srv directory size).
  • Note your current PMM Server IP address and configuration.
  • Plan a maintenance window for the migration (typically 2-4 hours depending on data size).

Platform-specific prerequisites

  • Confirm Docker/Podman installation and sufficient disk space
  • Ensure port 443 availability
  • Ensure kubectl access and sufficient cluster resources
  • Verify persistent volume availability
  • Verify cluster-adminprivileges
  • Confirm appropriate security context constraints (SCCs) are configured

Migration steps

To migrate away from VMware:

  1. SSH into your VMware PMM Server: 

    ssh admin@<your-pmm-ip>

  2. Check the size of your data to estimate backup time and storage needs: 

    sudo du -sh /srv
# Also check available space for backup
df -h /tmp

  3. Create a full backup of the /srv directory so that all metrics, settings, and database files can be restored on the new platform:

    • Stop PMM services to ensure data consistency: 
      sudo supervisorctl stop all
    • Create a backup of the PMM data directory: 
      sudo tar -czf /tmp/pmm-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz /srv
    • Note the backup filename and verify it was created: 
      ls -lh /tmp/pmm-backup*.tar.gz
    • Restart services (if continuing to use the VMware instance temporarily): 
      sudo supervisorctl start all

  4. Export custom configurations to save them before migration:

    • Dashboards: navigate to each custom dashboards, click the share icon and select Export > Save to file.
    • Alert rules: go to Alerting > Alert rules and copy the configuration details or take screenshots of each rule. Alternatively, export all rules via the PMM API: 
      curl -k -u admin: https://<your-pmm-ip>/graph/api/ruler/grafana/api/v1/rules
    • Service accounts: note service names and roles from Configuration > PMM Settings > Administration > Users and Access > Service Accounts.
    • External database connections: check Configuration > PMM Settings and custom configurations from Advanced Settings.

  5. Choose your migration target and deploy new PMM:

Benefits: simplified deployment and updates, better resource utilization and easy scaling and backup management.

To migrate to Docker:

  1. Install PMM Server with Docker to set up your environment.

  2. Create PMM data volume and restore backup: 

    docker volume create pmm-data

# Start temporary container
docker run -d --name pmm-temp -v pmm-data:/srv busybox sleep 3600

# Copy and extract backup
scp admin@<vmware-pmm-ip>:/tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz .
docker cp pmm-backup-*.tar.gz pmm-temp:/tmp/
docker exec pmm-temp sh -c "cd / && tar -xzf /tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz"

# Clean up temporary container
docker rm -f pmm-temp

  3. Launch PMM Server with the restored data: 

    docker run -d \
    --restart always \
    --publish 443:8443 \
    --volume pmm-data:/srv \
    --name pmm-server \
    percona/pmm-server:3

Benefits: familiar VM management interface, easy snapshots and rollback capabilities, minimal learning curve from VMware.

To migrate to VirtualBox:

  1. Deploy PMM Server on VirtualBox to import and configure your new PMM instance.

  2. Transfer and restore backup: 

    # Get the new VM IP
VBoxManage guestproperty get "PMM Server" "/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP"

# Copy backup to new VM
scp /tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz admin@<new-vm-ip>:/tmp/

# SSH to new VM and restore
ssh admin@<new-vm-ip>
sudo supervisorctl stop all
sudo mv /srv /srv.original
cd / && sudo tar -xzf /tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz
sudo supervisorctl start all

Benefits: rootless container execution, no daemon dependency and enhanced security model.

To migrate to Podman:

  1. Install PMM Server with Podman to set up your new environment.
  2. Create storage and restore data: 
    # Create volume (if not already created during installation)
podman volume create pmm-data

# Start temporary container
podman run -d --name pmm-temp -v pmm-data:/srv busybox sleep 3600

# Copy and extract backup
podman cp pmm-backup-*.tar.gz pmm-temp:/tmp/
podman exec pmm-temp sh -c "cd / && tar -xzf /tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz"
podman rm -f pmm-temp

  3. Start PMM Server with your restored data:

    • For systemd integration (with UI updates): 

      # Ensure systemd service files exist, then:
systemctl --user enable --now pmm-server

    • For basic container (no UI updates): 

      podman run -d \
    --restart always \
    --publish 443:8443 \
    --volume pmm-data:/srv \
    --name pmm-server \
    percona/pmm-server:3

Benefits: simplified deployment and updates, better resource utilization, easy scaling and backup management.

To migrate to Kubernetes/Openshift:

  1. Deploy PMM Server on your Kubernetes or Openshift cluster.
  2. Restore backup to Kubernetes: 
    # Get the PMM pod name
PMM_POD=$(kubectl get pods -n pmm -l app.kubernetes.io/name=pmm -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

# Copy backup to pod
kubectl cp pmm-backup-*.tar.gz pmm/$PMM_POD:/tmp/

# Stop services, backup existing /srv, restore data, and restart services
kubectl exec -n pmm $PMM_POD -- supervisorctl stop all
kubectl exec -n pmm $PMM_POD -- mv /srv /srv.original
kubectl exec -n pmm $PMM_POD -- sh -c "cd / && tar -xzf /tmp/pmm-backup-*.tar.gz"
kubectl exec -n pmm $PMM_POD -- supervisorctl start all

Post-migration checks

Verify that all components are functioning correctly before decommissioning the old VMware instance. This restores custom configurations and updates all connected systems to use the new PMM server.

  1. Access new PMM Server from https://<new-pmm-ip> and check PMM version under Configuration > Updates.

  2. Update all PMM Clients to connect the new server.

    • If clients use IP addresses: Update each client individually: 
      # Edit the PMM Agent configuration file
sudo nano /usr/local/percona/pmm2/config/pmm-agent.yaml

# Find the "server_address" line and update it to your new PMM Server IP.
# Example: server_address: "192.168.1.100:443"

# Save the file and exit the editor

# Restart the PMM Agent service to apply changes
sudo systemctl restart pmm-agent

# Verify the connection status
pmm-admin status
    • If clients use DNS hostnames: skip updating individual clients and update DNS records instead. See step 4.

  3. Verify data integrity:

    • Historical metrics: Open any dashboard, set time range to Last 7 days, and verify graphs show continuous data without gaps.
    • Service inventory: Check Configuration > PMM Inventory > Services for all monitored services.
    • QAN: Go to Query Analytics, set time range to Last 7 days, and verify past SQL queries appear with execution times.
    • Custom dashboards: Verify imported dashboards display correctly.
    • Alert functionality: Test alert rule triggers and notifications.

  4. Update DNS/network configuration:

    • Update DNS: point your PMM DNS name to the new server IP.
    • IP Swap: assign the old VMware IP to the new server.
    • Load Balancer: update backend pool to point to new server.

  5. (DNS-based only) If you skipped step 2 because your clients use DNS hostnames, restart pmm-agent after updating DNS in step 4:

    # On each DNS-configured client after DNS update
sudo systemctl restart pmm-agent

  6. Restore custom configurations:

    • Import dashboards: Go to Dashboards > Browse > Import and upload previously exported dashboard JSON files.
    • Recreate custom alert rules: Go to Alerting > Alert Rules and recreate custom rules.
    • Reconfigure services: Restore backup schedules and custom settings, then update service account configurations.

  7. Decommission VMware instance once you’ve verified the migration is successful:

    • Keep the VMware instance offline but available for 1-2 weeks as a fallback.
    • Take a final VM snapshot/backup for archiving.

  8. Select the VM in VMWare and Power off the instance then click Remove > Delete all files.