VM /ETC

When planning P2V migrations there is always a handful of servers that have huge disk requirements. A network file share could be as large as several terabytes. User Home Directories can also cause large, cumbersome servers that present unique challenges when migrating to virtual infrastructure. Given that VMware VI3 has a 2 TB VMFS volume limitation as well as a 2 TB .vmdk limitation, there is a better option. Consolidate your shares to a SAN/NAS directly and skip the P2V process.

If you are migrating to VI, you are probably going to implement shared storage anyways. When considering a SAN be sure to evaluate devices that can provide storage from multiple protocols, and therefore give you more architecture and design options. For file servers, consolidating to a SAN that can natively present a CIFS/SMB share is a great option. NetApp filers are a recommended solution for consolidating file shares, and the alternative for P2V-ing file servers.

NetApp filers can serve as a CIFS/SMB share that can replace your current physical Windows servers and offer new advantages like:

• reduced number of Windows servers to license, patch, protect, and administer
• apply data depuplication to reduce storage space consumed
• file replication for DR
• Active Directory integration and simplified management from common Windows MMCs and tools.
• simplified backup, reduced recovery time, and data security
• easily grow the volume when extra disk space is needed
• thin provision the storage

From NetApps web page NetApp – Products – Protocols – NAS – Common Internet File System (CIFS):

“How many CIFS-based Windows file servers do you have? Many businesses have hundreds—even thousands. This can mean complexity and high maintenance overhead. You can consolidate all those servers on our Windows File Services solutions. Our systems have native support for CIFS, so you can integrate them into your Windows environment with minimal to no disruption. Connect to your existing authentication services, like Active Directory. Use the VFM® (Virtual File Manager™) to non-disruptively migrate your Windows data and present to your end-users a single logical view of their files.”

When you are planning P2V migrations forget about planning for huge VMFS volumes and large virtual disks. Consolidate your shares to a SAN/NAS that can present a CIFS share to your users and systems. Save the VMFS volumes for easily consolidated server partitions such as operating systems and application code.

Related Posts

• Small business P2V migrations (11)
• Can you rely on live backups of Exchange and SQL VMs? (2)
• Domain Controllers – to P2V or not to P2V (4)
• Live VM backups from a VM – esXpress VBA (0)
• Backup VMs to CIFS and NFS Datastores with vRanger Pro and Datadomain (0)
• VCB in a Virtual Machine and other product enhancements (11)
• Is Citrix XenServer cheaper than VMware ESX Server? (26)
• Create a NFS share for VM ISO files with Windows 2003 Server R2 (13)
• Using VMs for physical server disaster recovery (2)
• Create a vcbuser – VCB Best Practice (4)