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Garrett_M_
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-11-2009 08:11 AM

How to handle VMs before a firmware upgrade on NetApp SAN device?

Hi All,

We have ESX datastores residing in LUNS on a NetApp SAN device as well as in LUNS on an EMC DMX SAN device. The NetApp is due for a firmware upgrade this weekend. A question came up regarding what to do about the ESX servers that have connections to datastores in both devices. Can we simply shutdown the VMs that utilized datastores residing on the NetApp but leave VMs using DMX datastores running? Essentially, connectivity to the NetApp would be down for about two hours. I've been assured that no VM is using datastores on both the NetApp and the DMX. It is one or the other. But we do have ESX hosts connected to both SAN devices.

Basically we want to minimize how many VMs we need to take down for the firmware upgrade. There is concern that maybe we should take down the whole ESX host if is has a connection to the NetApp, rather than just the VMs utilizing the NetApp datastores.

We are running ESX 3.5 sp3 with post SP3 patches.

Regard,

Garrett

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3 Replies
kooltechies
Expert
Expert
‎02-11-2009 08:21 AM

Hi,

The best way to go about is to use SVMOTION feature of ESX server , this will allow you to migrate VMs from one SAN (Netapp) to other SAN (EMC) without any downtime. At the end of Svmotion your VMs disk files will be migrated to EMC without any downtime then you can do the firmware upgrade and once the firmware upgrade is done you can move them back using SVMOTION again.

Thanks,

samir

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Blog : http://thinkingloudoncloud.com || Twitter : @kooltechies || P.S : If you think that the answer is correct/helpful please consider rewarding points.
Garrett_M_
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-11-2009 09:43 AM

Your answer is helpful Samir however the number of VMs and related datastore sizes make this option impractical. I am more wondering if leaving an ESX host running when the back end SAN is shutdown will cause any problems or not. It seems to me that as long as the VMs are shutdown it should be okay.

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kooltechies
Expert
Expert
‎02-11-2009 10:37 AM

Hi Garret,

Yes as long as the VM accessing the datastore is shutdown, the backend storage unavailabilty is not going to cause any issues.

Thanks,

Samir

P.S : If you think that the answer is helpful please consider rewarding points.

Blog : http://thinkingloudoncloud.com || Twitter : @kooltechies || P.S : If you think that the answer is correct/helpful please consider rewarding points.
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