But what if you don't have a vCenter server but only standalone ESXi hosts? How can you move or copy VMs between ESXi hosts when you have standalone ESXi hosts that are not managed by vCenter servers? Similarly, copying a VM or a VM template between ESXi hosts is very simple when you have the vCenter server-you can simply clone the VM to the target ESXi host or even deploy a VM from VM templates wherever you want in the vCenter server.

This migration is possible when you have a vCenter server and both source and target ESXi hosts are managed by the vCenter Server.