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dougdog

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is it safe to migrate a 400gig exchange 2007 virtual server hard disk to a new bigger datastore

I have an exchange 2007 server running on vsphere 5.0
one of my disks is nearly out of space
I need a quick fix so I was thinking it would be quicker and have no down time to use vsphere storage migration to move just the disk that is running out of space to a new bigger disk
the disk I need to migrate is around 400gig
has anyone done this before?
is it safe?
will there be any downtime
will it seriously affect performance
im running on a san
Avatar of Manpreet SIngh Khatra
Manpreet SIngh Khatra
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I would say preferably add a new Disk and then Move Logs or DB location with some downtime with no affects at all

- Rancy
Why not just extend the current Virtual disk?

with zero downtime....

see my EE Article

HOW TO:  Resize a VMware (VMDK) Virtual Disk

OR

Why not add a new disk, new Db Storage Group, and Migrate Mailboxes, this requires no downtime. (apart from to the users who's mailboxes are being moved).

You'll then have a new clean, defragmented storage group/mail database.
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dougdog

ASKER

the disk cant be expanded because it is set at 400gig on the san
if I move mailbox users to a new database this will not free up any space on the drive
it will only give me more white space
yes I agree that moving the complete database would work but the smallest database I have is 90gig with 200 users on it so all users would be offline while 90 gig was copied to new disk
im sure that will take hours
do you not have any SAN space to increase the LUN?

once you have moved all mailboxes, you can remove the storage group.
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ASKER

I do have more space on the san
but the virtual disk was created on the san as 400gig virtual disk
so I don't think this can be extended
if the virtual disk was created on the san as say 500gig but inside VMware was created as only 300gig then yes I could extend it
will storage vmotion not work as this requires NO downtime
what SAN do you have?

you should be able to extend most LUNs, on the fly, and then increase the datastore in ESXi on the fly, and then increase the VMDK on the fly.

all with zero downtime.
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ASKER

I have a HP EVA 4400
I don't see anywhere on the san management that says extend
I maybe could change the requested value but scared it would destroy lun
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ASKER

ok I have read that you just do this by using command view eva
and increase the requested value
however there are conflicting suggestions regarding VMware
some people say you just rescan hba and it picks new space up
others are saying you have to create an extent
bit confused now
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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ASKER

is this safe to do online or should I power server off?
also is it safe to resize lun on eva4400 live
I would always recommend any change to a production environment, to ensure you always have valid backups (not snapshots).

As for safe, we resize LUNs all the time live, it's a standard hot plug feature.
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ASKER

have you done this on a HP eva 4400?
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ASKER

perfect
thanks a lot
worked perfectly