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rivkamakFlag for United States of America

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How to migrate a file server that has a LUN directly attached to the VM through iSCSI?

Hi,

I have a VM in vmware that is being used as a file server. The files are residing in a LUN that is shared directly with the VM through iSCSI. (It appears as a second drive in windows.)

I want to upgrade the file server and I figure the easiest way to get this done is put up a new VM on the same Host and make another direct iSCSI connection from the VM to the ISCSI target (the same LUN). This way I will have all company files instantly without having to use any backup/restore software and save on SAN space.  

Does this make sense? If it does,then what will happen to all my ntfs/sharing permissions that were configured on the old file server. Will they be transfered also since the LUN was moved?

Thank you.
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Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Thank you very much.


Just wondering why cant two VM's both server up the same LUN via ISCSI?



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Thank you.


Its as simple as turning off the old file server or should I disconnet the RDM first and  only then present the LUN to the new file server?

As the old server is NOT going to be turned on again, and retired, I would just power off, and leave as is. (just in case you need to turn back on again!) = rollback!

Just build a new VM, then power off the old.....connect LUN...

Thank you. 


One last question. When I check the disk I see that it says iSCSI network. If its an RDM isnt it supposed to say Raw Mapped LUN?  Is that the same thing?


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two network interfaces??

no I suspect you use the Microsoft iSCSI int in the VM to connect to the LUN which is a RAW LUN but not a VMware RDM
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Member_2_231077

The simplest explanation of why you cannot share a LUN without some form of clustering software is that the File Allocation Table is cached in RAM so one server does not check the disk to see what space is really free because it can use the cached copy for speed.