Renaming Production DataStores

[BryanMcC]

We would like to rename production datastores while VMs are running on them.. We have about 10 we need to rename to align with host LUN ID and new naming strategy....

Anyone out there have experience with renaming DataStores while production machines are running on them?

If so...

What is the impact if any?

Just hoping we do not have to svmotion the machines as this would be a major undertaking.

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello.

You can rename them in vCenter with no issues at all. These names are basically just labels and changing them has no impact on your production environment.

Good Luck!

[dkfbp]

Hi,

Just do the rename. The names you see are not the "real" names of the VMFS volumes. You just see the name pointing with a symbolic link to the right name. A typical VMFS volume name is something like this

datastore1 -> 4b4333bb-1979ee0f-1cf2-000c29e1274c

by renaming you will just get

newname1 -> 4b4333bb-1979ee0f-1cf2-000c29e1274c

Best regards

Frank Brix Pedersen

[BryanMcC]

That what my intuition.. We called to confirm with VMware support and were told that the UUID was re-written so we would have to unregister the machines rename and re-register the machine which did not sound right to me.. I mean why would the UUID re-written for a simple symbolic link rename....

Thanks guys

Help me help you by scoring points.

[JimmyOOOOO]

You can rename the Datastores in a live production environment without issue. I have done this for the same reasons you specified.