Exchange cluster storage move to larger capacity
I guess my biggest concern or question is can I do one node at a time? One node has one set of attached storage\stores\mailboxes and the other node has the other set. Can I take one node offline and swap out the mailboxes\stores\logs etc. to the new storage and leave the other node up so only half my users are down at a time during the upgrade?
I'm finishing up the storage setup and about to plug it into the Fibre switch but was hoping a few of you might comment on my document and provide any suggestions or gotcha's I should be aware of. As this will be the first time I have attempted to migrate Exchange storage and this information I've aquired from the web I want to be sure. Thank you all. Attached Word Doc is the same as what I'm posting below, it's actually a 3 node cluster with one node always in passive in case one of the other nodes fails:
1. Carve the new LUNs on the new array
2. Add the new array and its LUNs to the same switch as the existing array
3. Configure the LUN masking on the switch to expose the new LUNs to NodeA and NodeB
4. Use the disk management tools in Windows to rescan the drives
5. Use the active node to partition and format the disks
6. Use Cluster Administrtor to create the new physical disk resources and put them into their proper cluster groups
7. Move the Quorum using the GUI to a temp location
1. In Cluster Administrator, right click the cluster name
2. Select Properties
3. Select the Quorum tab
4. Use the drop down box to select a temp location for the quorum
8. Delete the existing MSDTC folder (if any)
1. Stop the MSDTC resource
2. Copy the MSDTC folder from Q: to the final qurom disk target location
3. Stop the Q: resource (remember, the quorum isn't there anymore)
4. Delete the MSDTC resource
9. Move the quorum to its final location
1. Go into disk management and change the Q: name to another letter
2. Use disk management and name the final quorum drive to Q:
3. Repeat steps 7.1-7.4 to move the quorum to its final destination
10. Recreate the MSDTC resource
1. Create a new MSDTC resource with the clustername network name resource and the new Q: as dependencies
2. Bring the MSDTC resource online
11. Stop the cluster service and the application cluster groups (you can just stop the application resources if you want to move app data an app at a time)
12. Move the data from the old disks to the new ones
13. Re-letter the old disks to something outside the current range, but do not remove them yet - you might need to use them in your back out plan
14. Re-letter the new disks to the same drive letter as the old ones (no, you do not have to worry about disk signatures as applications don't understand disk signatures and don't care about anything other than drive letters)
15. Verify that all dependent resources are pointing to the proper physical disk resource.
16. Restart the cluster service
17. Make sure the new drive letters and disk resources are showing up properly in cluster administrator
18. Bring everything back online
ExchangeStorageMove.doc
I'm finishing up the storage setup and about to plug it into the Fibre switch but was hoping a few of you might comment on my document and provide any suggestions or gotcha's I should be aware of. As this will be the first time I have attempted to migrate Exchange storage and this information I've aquired from the web I want to be sure. Thank you all. Attached Word Doc is the same as what I'm posting below, it's actually a 3 node cluster with one node always in passive in case one of the other nodes fails:
1. Carve the new LUNs on the new array
2. Add the new array and its LUNs to the same switch as the existing array
3. Configure the LUN masking on the switch to expose the new LUNs to NodeA and NodeB
4. Use the disk management tools in Windows to rescan the drives
5. Use the active node to partition and format the disks
6. Use Cluster Administrtor to create the new physical disk resources and put them into their proper cluster groups
7. Move the Quorum using the GUI to a temp location
1. In Cluster Administrator, right click the cluster name
2. Select Properties
3. Select the Quorum tab
4. Use the drop down box to select a temp location for the quorum
8. Delete the existing MSDTC folder (if any)
1. Stop the MSDTC resource
2. Copy the MSDTC folder from Q: to the final qurom disk target location
3. Stop the Q: resource (remember, the quorum isn't there anymore)
4. Delete the MSDTC resource
9. Move the quorum to its final location
1. Go into disk management and change the Q: name to another letter
2. Use disk management and name the final quorum drive to Q:
3. Repeat steps 7.1-7.4 to move the quorum to its final destination
10. Recreate the MSDTC resource
1. Create a new MSDTC resource with the clustername network name resource and the new Q: as dependencies
2. Bring the MSDTC resource online
11. Stop the cluster service and the application cluster groups (you can just stop the application resources if you want to move app data an app at a time)
12. Move the data from the old disks to the new ones
13. Re-letter the old disks to something outside the current range, but do not remove them yet - you might need to use them in your back out plan
14. Re-letter the new disks to the same drive letter as the old ones (no, you do not have to worry about disk signatures as applications don't understand disk signatures and don't care about anything other than drive letters)
15. Verify that all dependent resources are pointing to the proper physical disk resource.
16. Restart the cluster service
17. Make sure the new drive letters and disk resources are showing up properly in cluster administrator
18. Bring everything back online
ExchangeStorageMove.doc
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BigSchmuh
Has array been properly aligned at partition time to the stripe size ?
ASKER
BigSchmuh - What do you mean. The new arrays & LUN's are doubling our current storage. The Arrays are all RAID 10 although I have not partitioned or formatted the new LUN's yet. Planned on doing that using the third passive node after I got it all attached to the fabric and ensured the server(s) could see it. What are you referring too in regards to aligned at partition time to the stripe size?
ASKER
Thank you jj, I probably would not have unless one of my support articles mentions it needs to be done. I will look more in to that to ensure I don't leave that step out.
It may not be required.. but you should ask you storage vender if they recommend aligining and to what offset.. ususlly they do but every vender is different
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa995867(EXCHG.65).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa995867(EXCHG.65).aspx
ASKER
Oddly or luckily enough we are the storage vendor whose storage I am using so I will throw the question out to a couple of engineers, thanks.
Cool. Good luck!
Any update?
ASKER
I'm racking the storage now and won't actually do the migration until Nov 1st but thank you for your insight.
ASKER
I'm racking the storage now and won't actually do the migration until Nov 1st but thank you for your insight.