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Migrating from Physical Server to VMWare with external SAN connections

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?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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qvfps

ASKER

Unfortunately I don't think RDM LUNs are supported on our hardware. When I try and add a new Hard Disk that option is grayed out.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

But have you added the LUN to ESXi!

If no LUNs are currently presented to ESXi, it will not be available.

qvfps

ASKER

I take that back. I am able to add one using the webclient. Can you point me to directions on how to connect it to the SAN? On a physical machine I would add an iSCSI card and drivers but I dont see that option under hardware.

qvfps

ASKER

I have LUNs connected to the ESXi host. However when I try and add the RDM it pops up a window "Select Target LUN" and are no targets to select.

qvfps

ASKER

I just needed to rescan the adapter. Now I can see the LUN I just added.

qvfps

ASKER

Thanks for the help. I have created a new volume and connected it to a physical server. I was then able disconnected it and re-connect it to a virtual server

qvfps

ASKER

I virtualized the server over the weekend with no issues. Thanks for the help.