Moving Datacenter to another site/city

[lonecedar2]

Hello

My company is preparing to physically move their datacenter to a new site in NJ.  We currently have 18 VMware ESX 4.0 servers with over 300 vm's residing.

We are going to build out a new datacenter at the new site with the same network/IP configuration.  We want to copy all our existing virtual servers from the existing site to the new site.  We will be using an OC-12 connection.

Can I use Site Recovery Manager to perform this copy?  Would it be better to just use vmotion/svmotion and move the vm's.

Thanks for your help.

[dcoz]

With SRM you would have to setup the SAN replication first. SRM would just automate the failover to the new site.

I have know several people to have a 1Gbps LAN extension betweeen sites and svmotion without issue between sites.

Hope this helps

Dougie

[rManic]

SRM is not a right choice for you as you are moving the exisiting VM s to new one.

SRM will help you when you want disaster recovery solution at alternate site incase of Datacentre failure.

Regards

Manick

[lonecedar2]

So this is what else I have found out....

We will perform a SAN replication. First starting with the new storage connected locally in the existing DC then we will move it to the new DC and perform replication across the OC-12 connection.

Does anyone have experience doing something like this and what should I look out for?  I know I will have to break the replication on the VMFS stores /LUNS when I re-inventory the .vmx file at the new site.  What about vmdk's?  I am guessing I will have to edit the .vmx file to change the VMFS ID.

Any help would be appreciated?

Thanks

[mal_michael]

Hi,

The steps are as follow:

1. Shutdown VMs at the old site

2. Replicate the last changes

3. Stop the replication

4. Promote the LUNs at the new site and present them to ESX hosts

5. Resignature the LUNs (because they will be recognized as snapshots)

6. Register the VMs (add to inventory). No need to edit vmx files.

Do you have VMs wirh RDMs?

What about the vCenter? Is it physical or VM?

Will the existing ESX hosts be moved from the old site to the new one? Or you will have new hosts?

Michael.

[lonecedar2]

Hi Michael and thanks for the fast response...

Yes we have VM'swith RDM's - they are in physical mode.

vCenter is virtual

We will have completely new hosts and network infrastructure.  We will be using the same IP configuration.

The big question I have is ....

We have VM's scattered across datastores and they are not "logically" organized.  Since the SAN replication is block by block copy (EMC SAN Copy) then how can we move selected vm's on different dates?  How will we know that vmA on lunA and vmB on lunB are ready to be brought online on that particular evening?  When do we know to break the replication?  We will not be moving all vm's(300 total) the same night.  This is scheduled over a two month period.

Thanks for your experienced help!

[mal_michael]

Regarding VMs with RDMs - it is not as simple as "add to inventory". Before you move them, document LUN ID and SCSI port ID of each RDM. After adding to inventory you will have to re-attach the RDMs to your VMs.

You should perform the move of entire LUN(s). So, if you don't have logical organization, you need to group all the VMs you want to move on particular day on the same LUN(s). Use Storage vMotion or cold migration. To save replication traffic, do that before performing initial on-site replication to the new array of course.

Michael.