Moving VMFS LUN from one storage to another storage

[rock_larson]

Hi,

We are running ESX 3.0.1 on Dell 6850 and have 2 hosts in cluster with DRS and HA enabled. We have a strange requirement and due to this we are planning to move the existing VMFS volume on one storage server to another storage server. For this we did below

*shutdown and unregister the VMs located on LUN

*unmap the LUN on storage to ESX

*copy the LUN to new storage

*map the LUN on storage to ESX

Now i could see the copied LUN in my server configuration -> storage adapters but when i tried to add the storage it warns me that the file system will be deleted but this is \*not* that i wanted.

Is there a smooth way to move the existing VMFS lun from one storage to another storage and add it back as is from the destination storage?

Thanks

[masaki]

Yes, move files not entire LUN.

[rock_larson]

Thanks Masaki for the response. I have issues moving files, see http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=697241&#697241 for more details. I am working with Vmware support to fix this but no luck so far. I just wanted to give a try moving the entire LUN and just remap on the destination and try to register the VMs from the lun at destionation. Is this not possible?

Thanks

Srinivas

[hharold]

Hi there,

have you presented the copy-LUN under the same LUN-id as the original was?

This should do the trick.

If not: try resignaturing the volume. Search for "resignature lun"on the VMTN Network and you will get some results that can help you from here.

cheers,

Harold

[rock_larson]

Thanks for the hint harold. I would try this and let you know how it goes...

[rock_larson]

Hi Harold,

Your hint worked like a charm. Below is the procedure i followed.

(a)Copied LUN need to be assigned to the ESX iscsi initiator group on the storage side.

(b)Connect to VC Server through Virtual Infrastructure Client.

(c)Select one of the ESX server in the cluster

(d)On the right side window choose 'Configuration -> Advanced Settings -> LVM -> change below values

(i)LVM.DisallowSnapshotLun -> 0

(ii)LVM.EnableResignature -> 1

(e)Configuration -> Storage Adapters -> Rescan (option at the top right corner) and see that new LUN is identified in the Details pane

(f)Configuration -> Storage(SCSI, SAN, and NFS) -> 'snap-xxxx' will appear in the storage, rename it to the appropriate name.

(g)Change the LVM values back to defaults as below

LVM.DisallowSnapshotLun -> 1

LVM.EnableResignature -> 0

All set and i could register the VMs from the copied LUN on the destination. I got a warning about uuid while registering the VM and i selected 'keep' as there is no change in the VM.

Thanks again for your help Harold.