SAN Copy Alternative for Hyper-V Cluster

Question

Dears Would appreciate if somebody could answer the below queries In our environment we have the AX4 5i   and  it is connected to a  Hyper-V cluster (2 Windows 2008 nodes) running  Exchange ,SQL and Sharepoint VM's We are installing the VNX 5100 with the intention of  migrating the old data from AX4 to VNX  But the problem is  that I cannot perform the online method due to - No licenses were purchased for Unisphere Manager and SAN Copy for AX4 - No free space on AX4 to create the RLP on AX4 Again on Pull Method -  The Duration taken was almost 3- 4 days whereas which the duration exceed the planned downtime. Hence can anybody advice whether we could opt for a Host based Migration Technique and if so what are the licenses options involved? Regards Muralee

dynamox · Answer

PowerPath Migration Enabler (using PowePath 5.7SP1 which allows for online migration of clusters). If you are running a licensed version of PowerPath, PPME license is free of charge.

Roger_Wu · Answer

You're using Hyper-V, have you tried its Live Migration? It should be designed to have no downtime.

dynamox · Answer

Hyper-V 3.0 (Windows 2012 server not in Windows 2008)

Muraleedaran · Answer

Dear All Thanks for the reply. Dear Roger If I am planning to use Hyper-V based live migration on this cluster can you elaborate the steps I should follow

dynamox · Answer

are you using PowerPath ? If yes upgrade to 5.7SP1 and use PowerPath Migration Enabler to migrate everything online.

Muraleedaran · Answer

Dear Dynamox Yes I am using the Powerpath for AX4 OR Can I do the following - Present the new LUN's to the cluster servers - Copy the data from old lun's to new luns' from windows explorer.

Roger_Wu · Answer

Well, dynamox is right, the Hyper-V on Windows 2008 does not support Live Storage Migration, a new Hyper-V 3.0 feature. But it still support Quick Storage Migration, althought it has several minutes downtime.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 - Quick Storage Migration - Windows Virtualization Team Blog - Site Home -…

Storage Migration Type	Platforms available on	Technology used for transfer	Expected downtime
Storage vMotion	ESX 3.5	Storage vMotion	None No perceived service interruption while the virtual disks associated with a virtual machine are moved from storage location to another
Quick Storage Migration	Hyper-V (2008 R2)	BITS and Hyper-V	Under 1 minute in most cases (W2K8 R2) VM can remain running for the almost the entire duration of the transfer of its virtual disks from once storage location to another VM is put into save-state for a brief interval to migrate its memory state and associated differencing disks.

But QSM is only available on System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) . You may also refer to the above link for the details.

dynamox · Answer

Muraleedaran wrote:

Can I do the following

- Present the new LUN's to the cluster servers

- Copy the data from old lun's to new luns' from windows explorer.

not with VMs running you can't. If your PowerPath is licensed, you are eligible for the free license for PPME (PowerPath Migration Enabler). One caviat to migrating MCSC clusters without downtime is you have to run PowerPath 5.7SP1.

VNX

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