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Unfortunately I don't think RDM LUNs are supported on our hardware. &nbsp;When I try and add a new Hard Disk that option is grayed out.
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But have you added the LUN to ESXi!<br />
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If no LUNs are currently presented to ESXi, it will not be available.
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I take that back. &nbsp;I am able to add one using the webclient. &nbsp; Can you point me to directions on how to connect it to the SAN? &nbsp;On a physical machine I would add an iSCSI card and drivers but I dont see that option under hardware.
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I have LUNs connected to the ESXi host. &nbsp; However when I try and add the RDM it pops up a window &quot;Select Target LUN&quot; and are no targets to select.
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I just needed to rescan the adapter. &nbsp;Now I can see the LUN I just added.
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Thanks for the help. &nbsp;I have created a new volume and connected it to a physical server. &nbsp;I was then able disconnected it and re-connect it to a virtual server
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I virtualized the server over the weekend with no issues. &nbsp; Thanks for the help.
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I need to virtualize one of our Windows 2008 servers. &nbsp; The server is configured with both internal storage and two large external volumes on our SAN. &nbsp;<br />
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The server is considered critical and can not be down for long. &nbsp; My original plan was to shut off all services, disconnect the SAN and virtualize the server. &nbsp;connect the SAN volumes to our VMWare cluster and reconnect them to the virtualized server.<br />
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After thinking about it I realized the drives on the SAN volumes are not .vmdk files. &nbsp; Is there anyway to do this without having to recreate the SAN Volumes on the virtual machine?
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I need to virtualize one of our Windows 2008 servers.   The server is configured with both internal storage and two large external volumes on our SAN.  

The server is considered critical and can not be down for long.   My original plan was to shut off all services, disconnect the SAN and virtualize the server.  connect the SAN volumes to our VMWare cluster and reconnect them to the virtualized server.

After thinking about it I realized the drives on the SAN volumes are not .vmdk files.   Is there anyway to do this without having to recreate the SAN Volumes on the virtual machine?

Migrating from Physical Server to VMWare with external SAN connections

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.

Virtualization

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.