File Server Service Migration to vmware

[rabih_reit]

Hello All,

I need some opinion concerning a migration of my MS cluster which contains Fileserver as Service and application to Vmware vCenter 6.5.

I have the following scenario:

1. I have two physical nodes
2. 11 volumes (each 2 TB) are mounted as direct attached (iscsi) to the Nodes from the Network Storage (3par) with peer persistence.
3. I have the File server configured as Services and Application inside the Microsoft cluster.
4. I have DFS configuration for all the Shares

about the vcenter:

I have High availability vCenter 6.5 with two sites redundant, so should I create fileserver vm on each site, or use

the FT on Vmware? , should I use RDM disk or wmfs ? what metho should I use to make smooth migration?

File server:

our file server is very critical and everything should be done with 0 downtime

your help and opinion is highly appreciated

Thank

Rabih

[daphnissov]

So your file server you have as two physical nodes that are clustered with MSCS/WFC? And you want to convert them to be one or more virtual machines?

Because I can tell you

everything should be done with 0 downtime

that ain't going to happen, no matter how you go about doing this.

[rabih_reit]

Hello

Thanks for your reply

Well yes they are clustered with MSCS/WFC, and I want to convert them to vcenter it could be one VM or two.

so with this situation what is your approach.

Thanks

[daphnissov]

There are many many ways to go about doing this, all with pros and cons. It comes down to what the requirements are for the file access services and what your environment looks like. So unless you're prepared to dive into those details the best we can do is just throw out blind ideas on the various ways to virtualize a file server.

[rabih_reit]

Thanks,

one more question, should I use RDM  or vmdk disk? cos I read many advantage and disadvantage topics.

[daphnissov]

Once again the "should" question we can't answer without many more details. There is no right answer, or even a best answer. It comes down to your environment and the requirements. I will just say generally that if you can use VMDK you probably should because of its flexibility.