lo_oscar
asked on
DFS file server migration to VMWare
Hello Experts,
I have a 2003 DFS physical server we want to replace with a 2003 (or 2008) virtual machine in VMWare vSphere 4 environment. I want to see what options I have in achieving this goal.
We currently have more than 2 TB of data on the SAN currently attached to the physical server. And we would like to present the LUN to the ESX hosts so we don’t have to copy all the data to the other location.
From what I have learned about DFS replication is it is replicating a copy of the data to the local storage on the new server. Is there a way to get around this or maybe a different way to migrate the DFS server in our case?
Any help is appreciated.
I have a 2003 DFS physical server we want to replace with a 2003 (or 2008) virtual machine in VMWare vSphere 4 environment. I want to see what options I have in achieving this goal.
We currently have more than 2 TB of data on the SAN currently attached to the physical server. And we would like to present the LUN to the ESX hosts so we don’t have to copy all the data to the other location.
From what I have learned about DFS replication is it is replicating a copy of the data to the local storage on the new server. Is there a way to get around this or maybe a different way to migrate the DFS server in our case?
Any help is appreciated.
vmwarun - Arun
1.Is your DFS and System Partition different ?
ASKER
Yes they are on different logical drives.
If the existing LUN can be presented to the ESX server, you could probably use Raw Device Mapping.
Basicly, you present the LUN to the ESX server and make sure the ESX server can see it on the relevant controller. You then add a new disk to the virtual machine and chose 'Raw Device Mapping' and you then chose the LUN that has been presented. The virtual machine will see it as normal disk (hopefully). Obviously, I would recommend testing this process to destruction before commiting a live volume.
I've done it this way and it all worked fine for me.
Basicly, you present the LUN to the ESX server and make sure the ESX server can see it on the relevant controller. You then add a new disk to the virtual machine and chose 'Raw Device Mapping' and you then chose the LUN that has been presented. The virtual machine will see it as normal disk (hopefully). Obviously, I would recommend testing this process to destruction before commiting a live volume.
I've done it this way and it all worked fine for me.
ASKER
Hi jakethecatuk,
I think the VM will be able to see the drive through RDM but how should I migrate my DFS root? Any thoughts?
I think the VM will be able to see the drive through RDM but how should I migrate my DFS root? Any thoughts?
ASKER
I found this but not sure if anybody had successful experience with it...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/fsmt.aspx
The DFS Consolidation Root Wizard (Dfsconsolidate.exe) in this tool kit seems to be able to migrate my DFS roots and keep all UNCs.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/fsmt.aspx
The DFS Consolidation Root Wizard (Dfsconsolidate.exe) in this tool kit seems to be able to migrate my DFS roots and keep all UNCs.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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