Change HDD Esxi Host

[onlinenet]

Hi Everyone

I have a Dell Poweredge T320 with two hdd sas 300gb in raid 1, i want to remove both of disk and put new 600GB SAS 15k rpm and create new array RAID1.

I want to say witch procedure is faster and easy to do that.

So the goal is reinstall ESXI on the new array with the new HDD and reimport the VM.

Attend your reply thanks

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Assuming you have your ESXi and VM's on the same Local HDD and if so then

1. Insert the New Local HDD into the empty slots

2. Create a new Raid partition and create a datastore out of that.

3. Install the new and updated ESXi on the SD Card. (Ensure you set the boot from SD to get the new ESXi loaded)

4. Assign old and new datastore to the newly installed ESXi

5. Move all the VMs to newly RAID datastore.

[SureshKumarMuth]

When you reinstall the ESXi host it is always recommended to take the backup of data which resides on local datastore, so in your scenario you may follow this method assuming you have one standalone ESXi host with no vCenter server

1. Export the existing VMs as OVF and store it locally.

2. If you have any no VM files like iso or other files, you can download the data to local machine using browse datastore option in vsphere client /webclient and download them.

3. Once you have all data backed up, attach new harddrives to the server and create a RAID volume.

4. Mount the ESXi iso and boot the machine from iso , you will get an option to choose the RAID volume (old and newly created volume) in the wizard

5. Select the new volume to install ESXi host

6. Configure the ESXi host with IP.

7. Post installation you will see two datastores in the ESXi host , old and new. You may delete the old datastore and remove them once you have the environment up with new datastore.

8. Import the data to new Datastores or you can copy the data from old datastore to new datastore  using ssh session or GUI.

If anything goes wrong in the above process, since you have the backup of data you are safe.

[onlinenet]

Hi Thanks for reply

So if i understand

I have two ways to do that.

The first method is download from datastore the entire folder witch contain the VM file on a local driver or nas, after put the new hdd and create raid volume and install Esxi the Upload the folder with the vm and add the vm to inventory.

The Second method is: (if i have understand)

Leave the actually drive with esxi and install the two new hdd drive and create another raid volume, after put the cd with the Esxi Installation and boot.

Install Esxi in the new Raid Volume then in the datastore i see the old and the new, after i copy the VM Folder to the new datastore and that's it.

Attend your reply

[SureshKumarMuth]

Actually the plan I meant does not contain two methods, only the data restoration has two ways (1. Import the data from the backup you have taken which is time consuming or 2. If you see both datastores on ESXi host after reinstallation ,you may do a file copy at the OS level from one datastore to another datastore which is faster)

You may create a simplified plan and implement. But dont forget to take a backup of data before you reinstall the ESXi host. Here is the simplified plan

1. Take a backup as mentioned earlier.

2.Create a new volume and install ESXi on it.

3.Restore data using the way which is faster and easier,

4. Once the VMs are up and healthy, destroy the old datastore.

[onlinenet]

Hi

I have a question

If i browse datastore witch contain VM  and then click on the folder of VM and click to Download in to a Local Folder, is the same thngs that export with OVF file procedure or is a difference beetween this two methods?

And after for restoration just remove the old hdd put the new create raid volume install latest version of Esxi browse the new datastore and click Upload from the Vsphere GUI select the folder i backup it and upload it on the new datastore, after just right click on vmname.vmx and add to inventory and thats it

Is good this procedure?

[SureshKumarMuth]

OVF does the data integrity check after exporting the data, so we need not worry.

Datastore download/upload is normal flat copy where it will not do data integrity check automatically.

And after for restoration just remove the old hdd put the new create raid volume install latest version of Esxi browse the new datastore and click Upload from the Vsphere GUI select the folder i backup it and upload it on the new datastore, after just right click on vmname.vmx and add to inventory and thats it

If you have a valid copy of data backup , then you may follow this.