How does Converter handle open files?

[esiebert7625]

If I resize my disks and it does a file/file copy on a hot migration. Am I guaranteed every file from the source server will be copied to the desitnation server. What does Converter do if a file is locked by an application or the OS and it cannot copy it? I normally shutdown all the services I can before doing the migration but I'm sure the OS still has files open.

[admin]

A disk snapshot shadow copy is immediately taken, and then most of the time is spent copying that snapshot. Whatever files are open at the time of the snapshot may not have data committed and the copy is crash-consistent. Subsequent changes to the files after the snapshot are not captured.

[esiebert7625]

Where does it store the snapshot? Does it create a separate image file on the source disk, or on the ESX server?

[admin]

It stores the snapshot on the machine being imported. That is why you need at least 200MB of free space to install and use the agent.

[esiebert7625]

I'm curious though, if I have 10GB of data, how does it store all that in a 200MB snapshot footprint? I'm assuming it is not preserving the original disk and creating re-do files like Vmware does when you create snapshots....thanks

[admin · Accepted solution]

The snapshot creates a point-in-time reference and tracks block-level changes to the files in the filesystem. The cloning uses the snapshot and the files to assemble a reasonable picture of what the entire disk looked like. I imagine that if you start deleting files while the cloning is in progress, those files will not make it across in the cloning.

[george_c1]

How about with Linux hot cloning, does anyone know how it handles locked / open file as the Volume Shadow service does not exist?

I am curious as it appears that the SSH Config file was lost during the conversion of a Linux machine and wondering if it could be down to a locked file issue.

[patanassov]

Hello

Converter uses 'tar' over SSH to copy files. In Linux, a file being open by another application, does not prevent it from being copied. The risk here is possibly inconsistent data (for files changed on the source during conversion).

Is it possible the file has been removed from the source machine during the conversion?

[george_c1]

Thanks for your reply. I believe that it may have been removed, although I don't know why. Unfortunately my knowledge if Linux is very limited so I don't know why this file would be removed, I know that the engineers were modifying it to give someone root access, but it shouldn't have been removed