Moving Datastores to different ESX servers

[Guv]

I have a bit of a tricky question. We are running Vsphere and our esx servers are connected to an IBM Ds4500 fibre SAN which has 8 enclosures.

We have a virtual centre with 2 data centres. One datacentre setup for our esx servers in site1 and a second datacentre setup for our esx servers in site2. Each datacentre has its own cluster setup as well. Both sites have their esx servers connected to their own IBM ds4500 fibre SAN.

In site 2 we want to move some enclosures from our IBM SAN which has datastores stored with VM's to site 1and connect these enclosures to the IBM fibre SAN in site 1. So we want to connect the site 2 enclosures to site 1 and connect these enclosures to the esx servers in site 1 and get the VM's running on these enclosures on site 1 esx servers.

My question can we get the datastores picked up the esx servers in site 1. Normally when you add datastores to esx servers it formats the datastores. But I dont want to lose the data. Is there a procedure I can follow to get this working.

[marcelo_soares]

If you present a LUN with an existing VMFS to an ESX 4.0 it will detect the filesystem and you will have the option to mount it without formatting.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Technical Support Engineer

Globant Argentina

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[TimPhillips]

You'll of course need to physically move the enclosures to the other

SAN and have it recognize the LUNs defined there; I'll assume you

already have this part covered.

You'll then need to present those new LUNs to the ESX server(s) and

have them do a rescan of the storage adapter(s) connecting them to the

SAN; they'll automatically find the VMFS volumes existing there. No

automated formatting will occur