I can find all kinds of information on setting up a new MS cluster in VI3, but I can't seem to find anything for virtualizing an existing one. We have various clusters, most of which access multiple LUNs on different SANs. Normally I'd be willing to just dive in and see what happens since I have the physical boxes to fall back on, but these are mission critical and I'm can't risk anything happening to them (plus, getting a window for them is next to impossible). Has anyone tried this? If so, is there some documentation out there that I just missed? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.
the other alternative is to colapse the cluster and move then P2V and then re-create the cluster following the document you already have.
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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
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Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.
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Dave Mishchenko
VMware Communities User Moderator
What Operating systems are we talking about, if it is 2K8 could you not add another node and then retire one of the physical ones. alternatively how about building a cluster and restoring the data. it would be cleaner
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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: www.planetvm.net
Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.
It's a 2K3 cluster and I thought about adding a 3rd node but there is a ton of configuration that needs to be done and none of the people who originally built it are still here(or bothered to document anything). I was really just hoping there would be a simpler way to do it. Layoffs cut your time, ya know? Thanks for the input.
the other alternative is to colapse the cluster and move then P2V and then re-create the cluster following the document you already have.
If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points
Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: www.planetvm.net
Contributing author for the upcoming book "VMware Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.
What application have you got clustered?
If its just something like MS Exchange build a new VM Clustered set up and migrate mailboxes via Exchange System Manager.
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Regards
Dave
Exchange is one of them, and as wary as I am putting that into the vm world anyway, I was actually planning on rebuilding it. But mostly we a TON of SQL (and one operational DBA left), so I'm just trying to make it as simple and straight forward as possible. Thanks.
I've just built Exchange into a VM environment - what SAN are you using?
What are your concerns with Exchange in a VM environment....
Exchange will be an easy one for you to move to be honest...
SQL is a different matter I think - I guess you've got a load of ODBC connections to application I suppose - or are they web based apps that have a SQL back end.
It's so much that I'm worried about moving Exchange, I just don't like messing with it period, really. And since I haven't tested it on VM yet, it a little bit of a concern. As for the SQL, we web frontends as well as ODBC apps (both inside and out), sometimes on the same server. It's all kinds of fun to work with.
Because the server is clustered you cant really do anything clever with DNS....
If you were consolidating SQL boxes into a clustered environment you could have just created A records in DNS to point to the new clustered name?
If you use an Equallogic SAN you can use auto snapshot manager to get application consistant DB backups of both Exchange and SQL