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Stu_McHugh
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Hot Shot

How can I import a Novell Netware box into ESX

I'm faced with the usual problem of discarding old server hardware. The particular problem I'm having is how to P2V an old Netware 6 box. I have the VMware import 3.0.1 but it won't import Netware and if I chose imange it will only accept Symatec and VMware images. Can anyone suggest any tools that will enable me to P2V it and make it boot?

Mnay Thanks :smileyblush:

Stuart ------------------------------------------------ Please award points to any useful answers..
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Huntermaz
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www.portlock.com Will do what you are looking for.

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lholling
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Hi Stu

All you need do is use Portlock Storage Manager as mentioned here already. You can image it straight using that product from the original NetWare server to the VM. Once it has finished then you can modify the two things which is the Disk Driver and Network card.

For the Disk Driver use LSIMPTNW and the NIC becomes the PCNTNW. Don't worry that it is 100MB/s only it will still work as fast as ESX can pump it out the physical NIC port so you will still get as close as possible to Gigabit.

That will work a treat. If you want a non-Portlock way of doing this (read free) then let me know and I can detail it as long as you are happy with doing some eDir things with DSREPAIR.

Leonard...

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Stu_McHugh
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Hot Shot

I've just had a look at Portlock storage manager but I'm reluctant to buy a product I'm only going to use once. I may try and download the trial version but I'm not sure what the limitations are with that. Any idea's?

If not then can you detail how to do this for free using a different method?

Many thanks!

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DigitalVoodoo
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Take a look at Novell's Server Consolidation and Migration Toolkit (SCMT), a free utility on their web site. You can use that to migrate the data as well as the server's identity/eDir info, and it will facilitate a 6.0 to 6.5 "upgrade" of sorts as well (caveat - your destination VM has to be a 6.5/OES VM. If you want to stay with 6.0, you'll need to look at other tools).

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lholling
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Hi There

Well you can use the Server Consolidation Utility, the problem that I have had in the past with these Novell utilities is that there is no real backout plan where you can bring up the old server if something unforseen happens. I always believe the best backout plan is fire up the original. This is where Portlock Storage Manager makes it easy...

Having said all of that there is merit in creating a new server and migrating over to the new server which in this case just happens to be a VM instead of new real tin.

All you need do is fire up the new VM (make sure that it is not connected to the production network) and give it the same name and IP Address of the server that it is to replace. When you are creating it put it in its own tree when installing it.

Now the following works as long as you understand eDirectory replication, partitions and DS versions. If you are unsure then check with your local eDirectory gur...

Make sure that the new VM has the same service pack level as the server it is replacing. Also make sure that the DS.NLM and DSLOADER.NLM versions are EXACTLY the same. You also need to look at the original server to look at the NSS volumes and check for features such as compression that are turned on for the original server. We will just assume that you are going to restore any other Data volumes from tape to the VM via an Agent...

On the original server create an eDirectory dump of the database using the DSREPAIR -RC (isolate the NIC first to a switch that a workstation only can see so that no replication traffic can be added to the local DB after you have dumped the DB otherwise it will be out of date. If you can't do this then the best way is to remove all replicas off the server follow the procedure and then add the replicas back once you are happy with the VM) which will save the files in SYS:SYSTEM\DSR_DIB and there will be files in there with numbers and an extension of .$du. You will need to copy these to a workstation from the original server so make sure that the NIC and the workstation are on the same switch as mentiooned previously.

Shutdown the original server and connect the workstation to the new VM and copy up the files to the same location.

Now comes the interesting part load DSREPAIR -$DU this is an undocumented command that allows you to do a restore of eDirectory from the files created by the DSREPAIR -RC. When you go into Advanced Options in DSREPAIR you will NDS Archive Options and in there will be two new options Restore NDS from Archive (with verification) and Restore NDS from Archive (without verification) choose the without Verification and providing that the server has the same name / ip address and can see a valid network (even if it cannot see the other eDir servers) the database will restore.

From there you will need to reboot the server and then you can do a check of the trustees by running the DSREPAIR commands to Check Volume Objects and Trustees which will add the Pools and Volumes back to the Objects in eDirectory.

That is basically it all you need to do now is to restore any user data and no-one will know the difference. It is especially handy if you have an EMC SAN and they are forcing you to do the upgrade so you can use v4 firmware being as they no longer support Native NetWare.

Any questions then please let me know.

Leonard...

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Bastien_P
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Enthusiast

We tried to portlock one of our netware box yesterday night... It's one of 4 server that is in cluster. We did a cluster leave before trying to move it. Portlock (with 4.0 or the 5.0 beta) gives us a Geometry was not set by the media manager for this device error for each volumes... and then exit. That was rather unexpected. I was pretty sure we would get some bump in the transfert but rather when we would try to bring the vm up... Not BEFORE starting the transfert :_|

anyone had this type of problem and found a way to make it work...?

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lgleyzer
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Hi Leonard,

I am in a process of moving our Netware 6SP5 servers to the ESXi host. Was able succesfully use Portlock manager and restore three of four our servers. But last one is not passing Portlock verification of NSS volumes refore imaging. The are unaccounted blocks and I am not able to fix this problem with NSS Poolrebuild. It looks like only remaining option will be use your method of DS backup and restore. Is it possible to get more detailed step by step instruction how to do this?

Regards,

Leonid

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lholling
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Hi Leonid

Is the information above not enough with creating a new VM with a fresh install of eDir with the server at the same eDir and SP version?

Once you have that it is really a case of following the instructions, was there something else that you needed?

As far as the blocks with no owner in my experience purge all the salvageable files and then run a NSS Pool Rebuild this problem normally is fixed.

Leonard...

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