Which tool assists in performing a non-disruptive VM migration between datastores?

Storage vMotion is specifically designed to enable the non-disruptive migration of virtual machine (VM) files from one datastore to another while the VM is powered on. This functionality allows administrators to optimize storage resources, perform maintenance, or rebalance workloads without affecting the availability or performance of the VM.

During a Storage vMotion operation, the VM remains operational, enabling continuous access and minimal downtime, which is crucial in production environments where uptime is essential. This tool updates the VM’s configuration to point to the new location of its files while transferring the disk data in the background, allowing for seamless transitions.

In contrast, while vSphere vMotion is also a migration tool, it focuses on moving a powered-on VM between hosts within the same cluster, rather than between datastores. vSphere Replication is used for disaster recovery purposes and does not facilitate the direct migration of VMs between datastores. VMware Converter is aimed at converting physical machines to virtual environments and does not provide the capability for non-disruptive migration between datastores. Thus, Storage vMotion is the correct answer as it directly addresses the need for non-disruptive VM migration between datastores.