Migrate ~2TB of data to new storage drive within windows server
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Hi there
I had a previous thread going on here about 1U Servers and then opened the world up to some storage issues and limitations I'm currently facing
Current:
Windows Server 2008 R2 running on Citrix Xen Server
Xen Server has storaged mapped to it via iSCSI LUN from a Synology NAS.Disk is attached to Windows Server VM through Xen Server. This is nearly 2TB
I've been wanting to migrate ALL the DATA from the windows "D" Data drive. This is nearly 2TB. This has all the windows shares and permissions set from windows.
Wanted to migrate to another NAS unit we have which would be using NFS Shares attached to Citrix.
I already attached the new larger drive as a Disk to the Windows Server and is setup as different drive letter.
Issue comes in of using a copy method to transfer ALL data off the current drive, to the new Drive letter. Then once done, disconnect the original drive. And give the replacement (new) drive the original drive letter.
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You have no idea how much I wish we'd done that.
We took the... "opportunity"... to redo all our folder structure for the whole company. Hand created all the permissions for a folder tree down 5 levels. I hated life for a month.
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Have you looked at Storage XenMotion (https://wiki.xenserver.org/index.php?title=Storage_XenMotion). This will let you move data between two storage system within XenServer.
Is the "D" drive setup as a virtual hard disk on the iSCSI LUN or is it being passed through to the Windows Server?
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@coliver said:
Is the "D" drive setup as a virtual hard disk on the iSCSI LUN or is it being passed through to the Windows Server?
The "D" disk drive is attached to Windows server through Citrix Xen Server. Which then rides back to the Synology NAS.
Pulled from the LUN storage pool as attached to Xen Server
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Have not looked at Xen Motion. I'm going to check into it.
For the life Of me, I would not want to re-do the entire folder structure for the company. that's like death.
I'd just then rather setup a new Windows 2012 Server and start fresh and only pull over the network shared data.
120+ employee's. All which we use Roaming profiles... and not to mention the SMB shares controlled by this domain controller
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Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit - it will migrate all permissions and folder structure.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10268Or you could set up DFS share and just let it replicate.
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@ntoxicator said:
Have not looked at Xen Motion. I'm going to check into it.
For the life Of me, I would not want to re-do the entire folder structure for the company. that's like death.
I'd just then rather setup a new Windows 2012 Server and start fresh and only pull over the network shared data.
120+ employee's. All which we use Roaming profiles... and not to mention the SMB shares controlled by this domain controller
If you're not using DFS for those file shares today, you might want to do that anyway, make migrating shares in the future much easier.
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@ntoxicator said:
@coliver said:
Is the "D" drive setup as a virtual hard disk on the iSCSI LUN or is it being passed through to the Windows Server?
The "D" disk drive is attached to Windows server through Citrix Xen Server. Which then rides back to the Synology NAS.
Pulled from the LUN storage pool as attached to Xen Server
coliver was asking, does Citrix XenServer see that 2 TB storage as one huge file, or does XenServer basically just pass the disk along to Windows and allow windows to manage the whole thing?
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Passes the disk along to windows and allows to manage..
Look >
Citrix Xen Server. You Assign or well attach a storage repository. Here I attached iSCSI LUN storage disks.
You create a Virtual Machine on a Xen Server Node. When creating, you pick WHERE you want the local disks to be stored/created on. You select one of the iSCSI LUNS.
Once selected. A disk or disks will be attached to the Virtual machine you just created and the size you selected. Windows will see these as local disks.
Going to read into the Microsoft utility - this might be the answer.
Presently do not have DFS
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When you look at the ISCSI LUN in XenServer, can you drill down and actually see what is on the storage? I'm completely unfamiliar with XenServer. In ESXi you can look at your storage points and see the files that are on the storage. In the case of a Windows Server, I see one 40 GB file for the
Drive, and one 2 TB file for the 
Drive.But if I pass the ISCSI through ESXi, ESXi can't see what's on the disk at all, and instead Windows handles everything. In this case Windows formats the drive directly and places files directly on the drive.
While this might be a bit faster, you loose the features of virtualization. Though Scott or coliver will need to explain why.
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@Dashrender said:
But if I pass the ISCSI through ESXi, ESXi can't see what's on the disk at all, and instead Windows handles everything. In this case Windows formats the drive directly and places files directly on the drive.
This is how its handled with Xen Server.
With Xen Server, I can select the iSCSI LUN storage points. And it will show me the created disks and to which Virtual machines they're associated with.
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@ntoxicator Perfect. You can use storage xenmotion to move that file around!
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@coliver said:
Move that file around!
Right, I can have xenmotion move the disk to another Storage repository attached to hypervisor. But 2TB of data over 1Gbe network between server & NAS will take some time. I'm worried about the transfer/migration failing and then data being lost.
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@ntoxicator said:
@coliver said:
Move that file around!
Right, I can have xenmotion move the disk to another Storage repository attached to hypervisor. But 2TB of data over 1Gbe network between server & NAS will take some time. I'm worried about the transfer/migration failing and then data being lost.
Data being lost? That's what backups are for.
Yes... this is going to take a very long time over a 1Gb network. Not sure how else you would do it if you are using iSCSI. Plan a long weekend.
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My concern was the entire volume assigned to the Windows 2008 Server VM (within Xen Server). Be lost or corrupted entirely.
I would like to just move this one attached disk to a entirely new NFS Volume on the newer Synology NAS
Then I could have seperate NFS Volume that only stores the virtual machine disk images. From there, migrate the OS Disk
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Further complicate the issue and to understand
the disk I want to migrate to another storage repo (NFS share instead of iSCSI). This is the "DATA" drive attached to the primary domain controller. Which again has all the shares. Also all the user profiles and folder redirect
Without this being back-online. Users cannot login to the domain.
Uncertain if the transfer would completely in a timely manner over a Friday evening to Sunday evening.
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NOTE:
When I drill into the ISCSI LUN on Xen Server
I select the DISK and click "MOVE"
"Upgrade XenServer to enable VDI Live migration. This feature enables you to migrate multiple running VDI's on shared storage between SR's"
I will try again when I power down this virtual machine and see if it gives me a disk move options. That way could move the entire disk to a different storage repository (NFS Share this time). Then from there, expand that disk size.
But in the past. When I expand the disk seize of the volume attached. Windows does not see it as a larger disk... Windows see's the additional storage space as a seperate drive. I've had to merge these drives together.
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@Dashrender said:
When you look at the ISCSI LUN in XenServer, can you drill down and actually see what is on the storage?
Yes, because the hypervisor is what attaches to the storage. So he can see the file that holds the VM. All SAN works the same in this way.
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@Dashrender said:
But if I pass the ISCSI through ESXi, ESXi can't see what's on the disk at all, and instead Windows handles everything. In this case Windows formats the drive directly and places files directly on the drive.
While this might be a bit faster, you loose the features of virtualization. Though Scott or coliver will need to explain why.
It should never be done (never being a strong word, but effectively never to the point that it shouldn't be discussed and definitely not considered in a realistic way) and is unlikely to be faster but probably slower as it moves the networking to where it is less efficient. It's not one of those "the world will end" just one of those "this never makes sense and is something SMBs do to be weird about tuning things that don't matter while missing the big picture."
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@ntoxicator said:
But in the past. When I expand the disk seize of the volume attached. Windows does not see it as a larger disk... Windows see's the additional storage space as a seperate drive. I've had to merge these drives together.
With windows 2008 and newer this isn't the case. We expand VMDKs on the fly on a daily basis. Without any interruptions.
