RAW disk to VMDK conversion

[Mango96701]

I have read some forum discussion regarding converting RAW LUN disks to VMDKs and it appears to me that my best shot is via VMware Converter P2v. Are there any modifications or configuration changes needed on the SAN side prior to performing the P2v? That is, we have a Dell EMC Clarion Fibre Channel SAN and our array comprises multiple LUNs for different purposes. The VM I'm interested in has a RDM to RAW LUN so I presume this means the entire LUN is dedicated to the VM, correct? Think I've read that to do this the entire LUN has to be dedicated to the disk. So, if this is the case, I just wonder if a pure P2V does the conversion alone or does something have to be done on the SAN side, as well. As you can tell, I'm no SAN administrator.

[dburgess]

If the VM is already connected to the LUN via an RDM, you could just add a new logical drive located on the VMFS you want to move it to and just copy the data from one drive to the other?

dB

[Mango96701]

thought about doing that but there is alot of data on the RAW disk. Think it would be faster just to P2V the server since the server will be converted to a VM anyway

[AndreTheGiant]

Another solution, but it require a power-off of the VM, is simple make a copy of your RDM disk, this will make a new vmdk.

For example, you can use vmkfstools to make this copy.

Andre

[Mango96701]

many thanks. I'll check out the vmfkstools