P2V Exchange Server with SAN Storage

[whuber97]

I need to P2V a physical server running Exchange.

The system volume and application files are stored in internal drives in the physical server, and all databases and log volumes are stored on our SAN. Below is the plan...

1. Stop all Exchange services on the Exchange server and set them to disabled.

2. Shut down the Exchange server and unplug the fiber cables from the HBAs attached.

3. Boot the server from the cold clone CD and P2V just the system partition to a new VM.

4. Zone the LUNs containing the databases and logs to our ESX servers and rescan our storage HBAs.

5. Attach the data and log LUNs to the newly created Exchange VM as RDMs.

6. Boot the Exchange VM, verify that each partition is lettered correctly and that they are accessible.

7. Start the exchange services and verify that the stores mount and Exchange is accessible.

I think that is a pretty solid plan, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. My one question is whether or not I should use virtual or physical compatibility mode on the RDMs. Can someone offer some guidance there?

Thanks!

[whuber97]

In case anyone was wondering or attempts to do this in the future, this procedure worked great. I elected to go with virtual compatible RDMs so our LUNs would be a part of VMware snapshots.

Will

[akanaka]

We have also done this with Exchange servers and other large file and database servers. We always use virtual compatiblity mode so that we can still leverage snapshots. With vSphere we have started moving our data back into VMDKs for consistency, and with the VMFS Volume Grow feature it is easy to add disk space when we need to.