VMware - Migrate Boot LUN from one storage solution to another

How do you clone a boot LUN?  I have no idea.

oh, hang on you want to move the LUN from one UCS to another ?

No, Andrew --

Host 1 boots from a LUN on SAN-A.  I want it to boot from a different LUN on a new SAN-B, without having to reinstall and reconfigure VMware 5.5.

Are these two SANs different ?

What are the SANs ?

can you replicate LUNs between SANs ?

We have NetApp filers, we can Snap Mirror a volume contains the LUNs from one NetApp Filer SAN to the other, break the mirror, and the present the LUN to a Host.

I don't know what SAN you have ?

The SANs are Violin Flash storage devices.  I spoke with them and there is no functionality to do it between the SANs.  Is there a way to do it via VMware itself?  Maybe a copy command from CLI?

I'm afraid not, you will need to re-install. (as I posted originally, CLONE-ING is not really supported by VMware).

If you have that many hosts it may be better to use auto deploy so that you can re-install the boot partition on the fly. vSphere 6 has some nifty new features for that,

From experience we have Cisoc UCS B200 blades and tried to clone the boot LUN .... Hancock is 100% right cloning a LUN then presenting it to other host turning into a mess!!!! Trust ME!!!!

I opened a ticket with VMware on this and they told me (surprise!) there is no method for copying a boot LUN.  However they did mention this:  http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2042141.  This KB explains how to backup and restore the configuration.

Has anyone used this method?  Is it complete?  Does it include everything?  If not, what would I still have to reset?

I need to get 16 hosts to a new SAN and I don't want to worry about missing anything in the configuration.

Thanks again,

S.....

I opened a ticket with VMware on this and they told me (surprise!) there is no method for copying a boot LUN.  However they did mention this:  http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2042141.  This KB explains how to backup and restore the configuration.

Correct, as I posted, CLONING is not supported.


Yes, we backup and restore the configuration, but lately this has become broken, and we've found it does not work.

Good Documentation, and Screenshots helps, and you should be able to re-build each host in 30 minutes (maximum).

Andrew,

Yes, my documentation needs some improvement on the host side and this is a good reminder for such.  

However, at this point, I'm in a still in a place of uncertainty -- Should I just take a deep breath and keep my fingers crossed, or is there a way to make sure that I don't miss anything?

Yes, we backup and restore the configuration, but lately this has become broken, and we've found it does not work.

What didn't work?  Where are my gotchas?

Thanks again,

S.....

The backup and restore, appear not to work, with some versions of builds of ESXi.

e.g. you do not get a valid copy of the configuration.

Thanks Andrew. I just reinstalled them, one by one...