sara2000
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P2V with SAN LUN
We have a windows2008 R2 server with multiple SAN LUNs, the luns are about 3TB .
I want to convert this to virtual server and also want to convert the LUN to vmdk (vmdk can be more than 2TB now).
I have been reading few articles and seems to be straight forward in theory.
My concern when I start the virtual machine fater the conversion , it will try to connect the SAN
1. Will it corrupt the LUN?
2. What the drive letter will be for the vmdk files after conversion, is there way I can assign drive letter for vmdk at the beginning of the setup?
I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.
I want to convert this to virtual server and also want to convert the LUN to vmdk (vmdk can be more than 2TB now).
I have been reading few articles and seems to be straight forward in theory.
My concern when I start the virtual machine fater the conversion , it will try to connect the SAN
1. Will it corrupt the LUN?
2. What the drive letter will be for the vmdk files after conversion, is there way I can assign drive letter for vmdk at the beginning of the setup?
I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.
It should not try to connect to the LUN since you either have an HBA for Fibre Channel which doesn't exist in the VM or iSCSI which is done either with an HBA or a physical network which will no longer exist. As long as the drive letters match as noted above you should be ok.
One note, with such a large VM it will take hours if not days to do the P2V and it may fail int he middle of conversion. It may be better to create a brand new VM and migrate the data over to the VM with tools that may be able to complete the migration faster
One note, with such a large VM it will take hours if not days to do the P2V and it may fail int he middle of conversion. It may be better to create a brand new VM and migrate the data over to the VM with tools that may be able to complete the migration faster
ASKER
We do not have FC. We are using snapdrive software adapter connecting the SAN via NIC card.
The server has Two set of nics one for the LAN and other for iscsi network.
I suspect iscsi initiator might connect via the LAN to SAN.
This is an SQL server.
The server has Two set of nics one for the LAN and other for iscsi network.
I suspect iscsi initiator might connect via the LAN to SAN.
This is an SQL server.
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ASKER
I agree . I forgot to mention that we have to migrate the data from Netapp to another vendor's storage that the reason I want to perform P2V. I thought that VMware standalone convertor will convert the LUN to vmdk.
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I did use Andrew's EE article year ago for a file server. I was able to do without any problem.
This is a SQL server. I should be able to convert it to VM , should I ?
This is a SQL server. I should be able to convert it to VM , should I ?
Yes, you can convert it to a VM.
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The drive letter for the disk on the virtual machine will be the same as the physical server, since the P2Ved machine is supposed to be an exact clone of your physical server.