Migrating shared luns

[usao]

I have 2 ESXi 5.0 hosts which have shared luns mounted on both from a FC storage array.

I need to migrate those luns to another storage array as the first array is being decommissioned.

We use shared luns so that any VM's on these luns can be run from either esxi server.

Anyhow, I don't know how to go about performing a migration.

I can already present new shared luns from a different array, but im not sure how to go about migrating the data cleanly.

Im familiar with LVM on Linux, in which I can do a pvmove to migrate the data from one lun to another lun while the system is not.

Ive logged into the esxi host and don't see the LVM commands in their normal place, so im assuming some other method is used to manage the shared luns.

I have a set of about 6 shared luns in a single datastore, so im open to suggestions on how I can go about migrating these data to new luns.

Thanks,

Ron

[weinstein5]

Are you licensed for storage vMotion? If so you can storage vmotioin and move the files using Storage vMotion while the vm is running - if you are not then you can cold migrate the VMs which will allow you to move the VM to the new storage. These do require vCenter.

[usao]

We only have the freeware stuff, no vmotion.

So, you are suggesting that I can "add" the new luns to the datastore, then physically login to the Linux kernel and move the files of an offline VM?

Im assuming I can drop the old luns from the datastore also without causing a crash?

Thanks,

Ron

[weinstein5]

So, you are suggesting that I can "add" the new luns to the datastore, then physically login to the Linux kernel and move the files of an offline VM?

Yes that is correct - and once the LUNs are cleared unpresent them from the FC array and rescan and they will be removed.

[usao]

Next dumb question. I don't see any menu options to remove a device (LUN) from a datastore. How is that accomplished?

Ron