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SGTVogt
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Can I detatch a disk from one (windows) VM and attach it to another with out formatting?

I need to migrate a storage server from win2k3 to win2k8r2 & if I can just disconnect that drive from the old server and attach it to the new one that would be an ideal solution.

is that possible?

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weinstein5
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Yes you can - it will akin to removing a hard disk from one physical server and inserting into another one -

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weinstein5
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Yes you can - it will akin to removing a hard disk from one physical server and inserting into another one -

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SGTVogt
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Thanks, I was fairly sure this would be the case but, better to be sure.

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vJJSosa
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it's possible, keep in mind that is necessary sVMotion (or cold migrate) after the re-add disk into the new VM, is just a best practice.

Regards

[VCAP5-DCA, VCP3/4/5, VCP-DT4, MCITP Network Infrastructure, HP ASE Bladesystem]
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weinstein5
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I would say its not necessary you can run the VM with the virtual disks stored in different dirctories but its is nice to have them all in one spot with directiry name the same as the VM name and that is what you will get if you svMotion or cold migrate the VM to a new datastore -

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ch00sen1
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I have a similar question, except I need to move a iSCSI volume that is currently attached to a stand alone windows box and I need to move it to a virtual windows box?  Can this be done without formatting?

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rickardnobel
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It should be possible, but careful to not allow the two Windows write access at the same time.

Just be very sure to first detach it from the first host and disable the iSCSI service, then re-mask the LUN at the iSCSI target to allow the second server, then setup the iSCSI initator on the new Windows.

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se
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