I have a Windows 2008 R2 VM that has an RDM mapping. It used to be part of cluster but is now a stand-alone (long story). Anyway I have to "move" the Vm to a new IBM XIV. Here are my questions.
1) Know know when you storage vmotion a RDM the point file is updated and data is not moved of course. If our XIV's are not replicating what is the best way to move the LUN on the back end.
2) What is required to convert the RDM to a VMDK? This is a critical VM do our downtime windows are very small
VMware
Last Comment
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
8/22/2022 - Mon
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Physical or Virtual mode RDM ?
this makes a difference to your options.
compdigit44
ASKER
IT is in physical mode since it use to be part of a MS Failover cluster.
gheist
Just a disk image copy with all VMs involved powered off.
UNfortuently I did not build it and cleaning up bad choices from my coworkers...Looks like moving the LUN on the backend or using convert will need downtime.
gheist
Yes, it will need the downtime. The bigger the LUN the longer.
600GB at 50MB/s = 3.5h if that 600GB is on a single physical disk.
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
No the Sync via Converter, must be done whilst ON, and the final sync ON.
compdigit44
ASKER
Ok so I had it reverse ... this might work... this mean the final down time would me minimal and need to read up on this since I have not done it before with a RDM.
Start your V2V......this can take as long as it likes.
when your first sync has been done, publish and get your Outage Scheduled, I would recommend a window of 2 hours. (1 hour to stop the service, 1 hour for final tweaks and return to service).
Depending when you know, the date of your Outage, Perform a Manual Sync every day.
1 hour before the published 2 hour Windows perform another sync......
then shutdown all services, shares, etc networking on the server...
perform a FINAL SYNC.
Shutdown Old VM.
complete modifications on new VM, IP Address etc, and then start....
Simple, 2 hour outage....and you do not have to worry about how long it takes to replicate, and it's done in background,, with little impact on server.
compdigit44
ASKER
I am reading your article indetail now and will let you know if I have any questions. I planned I testing this on a test VM first... The only thing I will not be able to do ahead of time is install the convert software on the product VM due to our strict change control process so I will have to run it from a remote server running converter.
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
not sure in terms of change control what is the difference here, because both will change the VM, e.g. install software on the VM to be converted.
As long as you have a back-out plan.....e.g. rollback, before software was installed should satisfy most change boards, we've been involved with!
I am running converter 5.0.1 which is what we already have installed on our vcenter server and selecting virtual infrastructure after I login and select my VM I get the message "cannot convert a powered on machine"
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Someone not reading my articles......tut tut!
VMware Converter, best practice and recommended install on the VM to be converted.....
compdigit44
ASKER
I did read the article but cannot install it on the source VM becuase of our change control process
this makes a difference to your options.