Reattaching boot lun to diffrent server

Question

Hi

I just need to verify the following.

Can you take a snapshot of a Boot LUN and reattach it to the same server or different server with the same configuration running on windows 2003.
Is it recommended to do so and is this something generally practised with EMC SAN.

Regards

Dharshana

dynamox · Answer

i would rather go with a clone of the LUN. I am afraid with a snapshot you would run out of reserved-pool space really fast, especially if the page file is located on the same LUN too. You can take a clone of the LUN, put it in another storage group and make sure it's assigned HostID 0, just modify HBA configuration to point to the correct LUN WWN ..and you should be ok.

T23 · Answer

Hi

Thanks for your feedback. Can you please explain more on ¿just modify HBA configuration to point to the correct LUN WWN¿. Is it same if I reattach the Clone on the same server.

Recently I had to do a reinstallation on OS at the same time change the Boot LUN from Raid10 to Raid5. This involved attaching new raid5 LUN as the boot LUN. But I didn¿t remap WWN.

regards

dharshana

dynamox · Answer

when you configure your server to boot from SAN, you go into your HBA bios configuration to select the boot lun, at that point you will select the WWN of the lun you are going to boot from.

jholguin79 · Answer

Hi,From the short experienced that I've gained from cloning OS boot LUNs, here are my recommendations:1. If you are going to attach your clone to a different server, disable the Navisphere Agent (if installed) on your source BEFORE cloning the LUN. Otherwise, when booting the cloned server you will have a mess with the source and cloned hosts on your Navisphere Manager (I learned this the hard way). After the cloning ends you can enable the agent again.2. If on a different server remember to disable your network adapter prior to booting so you can change the IP address and host name. DO NOT enable the Navisphere agent yet!3. After the clone boots and you change the host name and IP, uninstall the Navisphere agent and then perform a clean install.Hope this helps!

jpoling2 · Answer

I am attempting a similar process. . .when windows 2003 boots after attaching the LUN to the new server, I see the splash screen, then it reboots and windows never loads.Any ideas?Jeff

dynamox · Answer

same HBA model/maker ? Can you get into safe mode ?

jpoling2 · Answer

They are both QLogic cards from IBM in an IBM Blade center. The system I am moving from is an older blade system than the one I am moving to.

Old System: QLA2312
New System: FCEC-2312

The firmware versions are different on the QLogic HBA

Old System: 3.03.19
New System: 3.03.13

The BIOS versions on the cards are different:

Old System: 1.38
NEw System: 1.43

Safe mode does not work either

dynamox · Answer

so it's probably using different hba driver ? Can you try to boot from your windows cd, hit F6 and have this new hba driver ready on a floppy...and go thru the windows repair process ?

dynamox · Answer

also the HAL is probably very different if you are moving from an old architecture system to the new one.

CLARiiON

Reattaching boot lun to diffrent server

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