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Overview

Before nxtMove can discover or migrate workloads, you must register the source vSphere environment as an environment in the Migration panel. An environment stores the endpoint URL, credentials, and optional scope (datacenter) used for every subsequent discovery and migration job against that source.
In the Dashboard, source VMware endpoints are called Environments. In the CLI, the same objects are called sources (nxtMove source create, nxtMove source list). Both refer to the same registered endpoints.
Prerequisites
  • An active NxtSight account with permission to use the Migration panel
  • A reachable vCenter Server or standalone ESXi host
  • A vSphere account with at least read permission for inventory discovery and snapshot, disk read, and Changed Block Tracking permissions for migration (see the Required Permissions table below)
  • The fingerprint or CA chain of the source if you choose to verify TLS

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Register from the Dashboard

Open the Migration panel

Sign in to the NxtSight Dashboard and navigate to Migration → Environments. Click Add Environment and choose VMware vSphere as the platform.

Enter connection details

Test the connection

Click Test Connection. nxtMove opens a vSphere API session, fetches the product name and build number, and closes the session. A green check confirms the endpoint, credentials, and TLS options are valid.
Connection test returns the remote product name and build.

Save the environment

Click Save. The environment appears in the Environments list with status Connected and the detected vSphere version.

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Required Permissions

nxtMove needs the following vSphere privileges on the target inventory objects. Create a dedicated role and assign it to the nxtMove service account at the datacenter level for the cleanest setup.
A read-only account is enough to register the source and run discovery. You can assign the higher-privilege role closer to the migration window to limit blast radius.

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Standalone ESXi vs vCenter

vCenter

Preferred for production — one environment entry covers all clusters and hosts, role-based access control is centralized, and vMotion and snapshots are coordinated through vCenter.

Standalone ESXi

Supported for smaller sites and edge deployments. Use the host IP or FQDN as the endpoint and root (or a local ESXi account) as the username. Datacenter is auto-detected as ha-datacenter.

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Editing and Deleting Environments

From Migration → Environments, select a row to see the details drawer. Available actions:
  • Edit — update endpoint, credentials, or TLS verification
  • Test Connection — re-run the connectivity check at any time
  • Delete — remove the environment (only permitted when no active migration jobs reference it)
Changing the username or password of an active source invalidates any in-flight discovery. Re-run discovery after updating credentials so the inventory cache refreshes.

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Next Steps

Discover Workloads

Inventory VMs and disks from the newly registered source

Preflight Assessment

Validate compatibility before submitting a migration

Admin — Source Credentials

Credential storage, rotation, and least-privilege setup