VM Migration - How can we move the Oracle RAC VMs with local shared disks to new hardware, If we do as a new VM RAC rebuilt, how can we make sure have the same configuration (Hostname, IPs, Clustername, Services. etc.,) please advise..
Moderator: Thread moved to the Virtualizing Oracle area.
Hello,
I'd say it totally depends on the size of the VMs. There are several ways to approach this.
1. Package them as OVFs and deploy on the new HW
2. Use V2V using vmware converter if it's across vcenters
3. Restore from backup to the new HW
Again, depends on the sizing and if you are using RDMs or VMDKs.
Share with us your setup details so we can work through this.
You can use V2V migration using vCenter converter to migrate on new hardware with downtime window. However, make sure before you want to migrate have a good backup.
Hi Nawals,
Thanks for your reply,
If we use this V2V migration -- Can we move existing system as it is, will the disk come along with data? with same hostname and cluster names? Will it transparent to users/application?
Appreciate your response.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply...
We are using VMDKs, it's a shared disk between two RAC nodes.
We were told that "For Virtual Machines which require disk sharing, migrations should be done as a rebuild", If we done as a rebuild new RAC and do restore of the existing database, how could we make sure the existing configuration remains the same (Hostname, Clustername, etc.,). Our primary goal is to make it transparent to users.
1. Package them as OVFs and deploy on the new HW -- Can we move existing system as it is, will the disk come along with data? with same host and cluster names? Will it transparent to users/application?
2. Use V2V using vmware converter if it's across vcenters -- Can we move existing system as it is? with same host and cluster names? Will it transparent to users/application?
3. Restore from backup to the new HW -- Yes, this can be done but we want make it to transparent to USERS, How can we achieve this?
Appreciate your inputs.
Thanks,
Hello,
1. OVF is nothing but a package of your VM. So yes when you use it, the same hostname and RAC cluster name will be used as that data is within the package. The only thing you need to ensure is captured is the MAC address of the network adapter, the portgroup to which it was connected and the scsi bindings of the VMDKs
2. For V2V to work, the existing environment needs to be available at the same time with the new environment. Then it's the same as above.
3. Since you are sharing VMDKs, this cannot be done online. So a downtime is required for the whole process.
Yes, You can get the vm on target as is it unless you not modify anything while performing V2V Also, in other way you can as mentioned in this VMware blogs Migrating non-production Oracle RAC using VMware Storage vMotion with minimal downtime - Virtualize ...