*Goal:*
Enable administrators to designate a subset of ESXi hosts ("Dedicated Migration Hosts") to handle all data extraction activities, providing resource isolation, simplified security configuration, and optimized network paths for all migration types.

*Background:*
Forklift currently performs data extraction (reading VMDKs) using the ESXi host where the source VM is registered. While [MTV-3264](https://issues.redhat.com/browse/MTV-3264) introduced this for storage-offloaded migrations to manage VIB/SSH requirements, the need is equally relevant for non-offloaded migrations.

Large-scale migrations introduce a "migration tax" (CPU, Memory, and I/O overhead) on the source hosts. Administrators often prefer to isolate this load to non-critical hosts or hosts specifically configured with the necessary network throughput to the OpenShift cluster.

*Scope:*
This Epic generalizes the "Dedicated Migration Hosts" concept to apply to all vSphere migration workflows (Cold, Warm, and Storage-Offloaded).

*User Stories:*

• *As an administrator*, I want to define a list of dedicated ESXi hosts in the vSphere Provider settings to isolate migration traffic from production workloads.
• *As an administrator*, I want Forklift to extract data via Storage Offload using a designated host, even if the VM is registered on a different host, to avoid unnecessary vMotions.
• *As an administrator*, I want to limit specialized security configurations (e.g., SSH access, VIB installations, or relaxed Secure Boot) to only the designated migration hosts.

*Technical Highlights:*
1. *Unified Provider Setting:* Introduce a general `dedicatedMigrationHosts` setting in the vSphere Provider (evolving from the proposed `dedicatedOffloadMigrationHosts`).
2. *Dynamic Extraction Routing:* Update the populator and controller logic to route data extraction (e.g., NFC connections for warm migration or `vmkfstools` for offload) through one of the dedicated hosts that has access to the source datastore.
3. *Load Balancing:* Implement a selection strategy (e.g., round-robin) to distribute migration tasks across the dedicated hosts.
4. *Resiliency:* Ensure clear validation and fallback behavior when a dedicated host cannot access the required storage.

*Benefits:*

• *Performance Isolation:* Protects production VM performance by offloading extraction overhead.
• *Infrastructure Efficiency:* Reduces the surface area for security and network configurations.
• *Flexible Scaling:* Migration throughput can be scaled by adding hosts to the dedicated pool.