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Arkady
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Connect virtual machine directly to LUN

Hi.

We have a physical file server (Windows 2003 R2) which connects to a LUN on SAN.

Is is possible to connect virtual machine to the same LUN and be able to read data?

Thank you in advance!

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Wadebum
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Yes, the drive even picked back up its E:\ status and everything was perfect. I was a bit apprehensive at first as well but it works so well that I don't even stop to think about doing it anymore.

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Luckybob
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How are you presenting the LUN? (iSCSI, FC, NFS)

If you are trying to connect the same LUN to two different servers, this will not work well. You will end up corupting you data as the servers try to access the LUN at the same time.

The only instance this works is in a cluster type setup, or with an OS that can maintain a connection to multiple LUNs. (i.e vCenter w/ ESX, ESXi, MSCS-using physical disk option)

What are you trying to accomplish?

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Arkady
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We use FC.

The goal is to get rid of a physical server and move it to a virtual machine. Physical server connect to a LUN with data share.

We would like to disconnect this LUN from the physical server and present it to a virtual machine, maybe as a RAW device.

I am not sure if this is doable, looking for options.

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Wadebum
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It is possible. I have done this with a few Physical servers. We used Converter to import then presented the Lun to the ESX hosts and finaly presented the disk to the VM as a RAW disk.

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Luckybob
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Beat me to the punch, but yeah that is what we have done in the past.

Arkady
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And when you connected as RAW device you were able to see NTFS data without any problems?

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Wadebum
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Yes, the drive even picked back up its E:\ status and everything was perfect. I was a bit apprehensive at first as well but it works so well that I don't even stop to think about doing it anymore.

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Arkady
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Great. Thank you!

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Hittin
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Hi,

So presenting it as a physical raw device (SCSI controller with bus sharing turned on for physical RDM for that specific controller) to multiple VM's (same host or not does it matter?) should work?

Problem I have is create a directory on Windows 2003 x64 Enterprise and the other VM, being Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise (same host) does not the newly created directory. If I take the drive offline and put back online, the refresh shows it. What's the story with dynamic?

The Mapping file is contained in a LUN that is on the SAN. Created on the first VM guest, then told subsequent guests to use that same LUN/map file.

The SAN is a Dell MD3000i with the latest firmware that states support for 2k8R2.

Is LUN/file sharing really this difficult? If some, what is the point of sharing a map file if it doesn't keep locks etc.. up to date in realtime?

thanks

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