Move .dvsData Folder

[chris_halstead]

Once the location on shared VMFS for the Distributed Virtual Switch data (the .dvsData Folder) is chosen...how do you change the DVS to point to a different datastore? I am trying to retire a LUN where this folder is located and I can't figure out how to move it to a different LUN.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[BjornMoE]

Hi,

I wondering the same thing, had you or anyone else knowledge about this. Is this relevant data or is it just a replicated information witch just rebuilds itself?

[nirvy]

When you create virtual machines on shared storage, if they are a part of a dvSwitch, a .dvsData folder is created on the same storage as the VMs. This .dvsData folder stores meta data relating to those VMs only. Any VM with a dvs on any other datastore you create will create another .dvsData folder in that location.

This folder has only metadata, the main configuration is stored in both the vCenter db and local to each hosts in /etc/vmware/dvsdata.db

So you don't really need to "move" .dvsData. Say for example you wanted to retire a lun but it contains a .dvsData folder, what you would do is Storage vMotion the VMs off that lun. Once they have moved, the vCenter and local dvs databases will update the new location of the .dvsData folder (depending on where you moved the VMs). You can verify the change by using the net-dvs command /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-dvs and looking at the uuid of the datastore. Once you have confirmed that the hosts are no longer referncing the .dvsData folder on the lun you wish to retire, you can then safely delete it.

[BjornMoE]

Just what I intend to do, retire a LUN. Thanks for the information

/Bjorn