Migrate ~2TB of data to new storage drive within windows server
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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.
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@ntoxicator said:
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.
So do you have the ability to backup this virtual hard disk at the hypervisor level? Then restore it to the NFS volume. Schedule some down time and detach the one connected to the iSCSI storage and attached the NFS one. That should maintain the drive letter and all the configs...
