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aleczander
Contributor
Contributor

esx 2.5.3 and esx 3.5 share a SAN datastore

I'm so lost....

I need to gain access to a datastore to copy my vmdks from a vmfs 2.5 datastore to a new datastore with a new ESX 3.5 host. I would only need to gain read only access to the old datastore on the san.

SAN: Storage manager 10

I've tried to "define additional mapping" of our existing lun to the new host. It only shows as "access" and the capacity is blank ( i used the same LUN number)

Fiber switch:

I've created an alies for the hba's san identifier on the new host ... no show of datastore

I created a new zone for the new host's identifier and added our san zone ... no show of datastore

I tried putting the alies I created for the new host in the zone of the san ... no show

New host:

I "borrowed" a fiber card from one of our other servers to put it in this temporary esx 3.5 host.

After every san switch change and every san change, I rescaned the storage adapter and its not reveiling

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FranckRookie
Leadership
Leadership

Hi Aleczander,

Not sure ESX 3.5 will be able to mount ESX 2.5 datastore (not the same VMFS format). One solution could be to use VMware vCenter Converter which is free ( link to converter ).

Hope it helps

Regards

Franck

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aleczander
Contributor
Contributor

We're getting CLOSER!

I can now see my new vmfs3 lun and my vmfs2 lun (read only)

I can browse the vmfs3 lun, but when I try to browse the vmfs 2.5 lun, it hangs at "searching datastore"

I cannot upgrade the vmfs on this lun because there are production vm's attached to ESX 2.5 hosts.

The purpose of seeing both luns is to copy my vmdks from the vmfs2 to the vmfs3

see attached screen shot

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FranckRookie
Leadership
Leadership

Can you browse the datastore through the System console of your 3.5 using "ls /vmfs/volumes/LAN" ?

weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

The VMDKs will be locked is they are attached to running VMs so you will not be able to simply copy the VMDK while the VM is powered on - Storage vMotion came about from an upgrade method from moving from ESX 2 to ESX 3 - it does require for you to use the Migration Upgrade method as described on page 21 of http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_upgrade_guide.pdf

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aleczander
Contributor
Contributor

I CAN browse /vmfs/volumes/LAN using the console, any idea why I can't browse the LAN datastorevusing the VI client?.

In the mean time, when I am given the oppertunity to shutdown all the VM's for the vmdk's housed on this datastore, I'll just copy them via command line instead of using the VI client (coping from one datastore to the other.)

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FranckRookie
Leadership
Leadership

Strange... You can try to restart vCenter management agent on the host or vCenter server service...

Regards

Franck

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sabya1232003
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The Best option is to migrate VMs from VMFS2 to VMFS3 by taking downtime on each VM (no big outage window required)

1.Power off VM

2. Copy the Vmdk and other config files from VMFS2 to VMFS3 (Via Service Console)

3.Reconfig the VM on VMFS3 (from Datastore just right click the .vmx file and choose add to inventy)

4.Upgarde VM Hardware Version (Just right click and choose)

5.Power ON the VM and install/Upgrade the VMware Tools

Follow the above steps for each of the VM and I am sure your problem will be solved.We had the same fix few yrs back while upgrading from 2.x to 3.x

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