How to access data on disconnected volume

[jpalmero1]

Hello.

Here is the scenario.

Old physical server Gen4 running Server 2003 for legacy application. Four volumes on PowerStore. After upgrading firmware on PowerStore, the initiators are no longer detected by PowerStore. Dell will not support 2003.

I did a P2V of the physical and comes up fine, but when I provision the volumes the server "sees" them as raw storage and wants to format.

Any ideas or suggestions how I can get the data?

Thank you.

[kastlr]

Hi,

the following should work.

• create a new Windows VM (or use the P2V VM)
• add an additional SCSI controller to that VM (not required, but useful to separate classic vmdks and pRDMs)
• grant your ESXi server access to all the Powerstore LUNs which where owned by the old physical W2K3 system
• add the "data" disks to your VM as pRDMs (Raw Device Mapping) 

That approach didn't change any data on your "data" disks, but you might need to sort out which disk has which drive letter assigned.