Archive for March, 2010
P2V MS Windows Cluster Running Exchange 2003 Part II
As I posted here before, we can successfully P2Ved MSCS running Exchange 2003 without much issue though it will require some steps. Here is the continuous steps on how we are going to P2V the rest of physical MSCS nodes. Each MSCS node P2V migration & scenario will require a different step & configuration specially for the 1st & the 2nd one.
If you’re still remember, 1st physical MSCS node with existing quorum disk, will require us :
1) To choose proper cluster setup :
- Clustering VMs on one Physical Host
- Clustering VMs Across Physical Hosts
- Clustering Physical and VMs
2) Quorum Disk
- Present it to one ESX hosts
- Add to target VM as RDM in physical mode (will be shared with the remaining physical MSCS node)
- Add to VM with new scsi adapter (scsi:1:0)
- Using LSIlogic parallel Read more 2 comments
DIFFERENT LUN ID ALLOCATION TO ESX HOSTs
I’ve seen twice this week vMotion operation failed for some VMs with RDM due to ESX hosts unable to find the path for RDM vdisk. Though all 4x ESX hosts able to to see the LUNs when I rescanned it, but still I’m inexplicably failed to vMotion the VMs. So, what are the things causing this actually?.
Fact-Finding
- Both issue happened on ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0 environment
- ESX 3.5 environment with Falconstor NSS as target storage while
- ESX 4.0 environment with HP Eva as target storage
- All ESX hosts able to see a bunch of LUNs without problem
Initial investigation for ESX 4.0 environment (HP Eva) with small number of LUNs (6) I found out, this is due to different LUN ID presented to 4x ESX hosts. Strangely, all ESX hosts able to see all LUNs and I even can browse the datastore without any issue except for vMotion. Read more
1 commentP2V MS Windows Cluster Running Exchange 2003
After failed with my first attempt today and with meticulous preparations, finally I managed to P2V one of MS cluster machine running Exchange 2003 without much hassle. Since we already know how intricate Exchange is, there are few things we need to be careful before we decide to P2V this cluster box but below are the list of steps which proven and works for my second attempt :
Objective :
- P2V 2x physical Windows Cluster Box running Exchange 2003 to 2x ESX host (ESX4.0U1)
Cluster Setup :
- Clustering VMs on one Physical Host
- Clustering VMs Across Physical Hosts
- Clustering Physical and VMs
If you refer to VMware documents (vi3_301_201_mscs), each cluster setup will require a different configuration on the VMs setting. In my case, I should setup the VMs for “Clustering VMs across physical hosts” though I forgot, before I’m going to have 2x VMs across 2x ESX hosts, I will only manage to P2V the VMs one by one. Failed to identify this caused me trouble to bring up the first VM after P2Ved it due to quorum disk scsi reservation issue. So, once I followed the “Clustering Physical and VMs” instead “Clustering VMs across physical hosts” setup the problem solved.
P2V Migration Method
- Hot Cloning
- Cold Cloning
Deep in my heart keep pushing me to choose Hot Cloning because of the challenges I will face over Cold Cloning. However, since this is my first time to P2V MS Cluster & Exchange box, I determined to migrate the box via vCenter bootable CD (4.1.1).
Pre-Migration
Nothing much need to be done, except I make sure both machines in good state. Just assume one of the box out of sudden got power failure. I cannot do anything, cannot properly shutdown the machine & etc. Once I down the machine I did present all LUN inclusive quorum & exchange logs and data disk to one target ESX host. So the summary : Read more
3 commentsP2V Windows Domain Controller Machine.
After a well plan, today I’m successfully P2Ved one of Windows DC (Win2K3) machine without much hassle. Without taking any risk on the exercise, I did cold clone the machine with simple steps as below :
- Using vCenter Converter 4.1.1 bootable CD
- Disable all critical services
- Retain the system drive as much as possible as we can during conversion.
- Removed HP Insight software after conversion (Network)
- Removed Trend Micro Software before VMware Tools installation.
- Reconfigure & verify network configuration
- Enable back critical services (i.e dhcp, dns)
- Only enable VM network after I finished will all above steps
- Turn-off main DC and test authenticate user to this DC
Next week, I will share the conversion steps for 2x Exchange 2003 Servers.
Ariyossss
athlon_crazy 06/03/2010
No commentsManually Assign Mac Address for VM
Had a problem with Merak FlexLM application today which cannot be started and complaint about licensing after I P2Ved the server to vSphere4. After when I looked into FlexLM .lic license, found out the license only eligible for the old physical server mac address and cannot be transferred to any other machine. Luckily, after I manually changed guest OS mac address (NIC property) akin to what I found in .lic license, I can start using the application (PEEP) flawlessly. To manually change and use your own mac address, please follow below :
Device Manager -> Network Card Property -> Advance -> Network Address / Local Administered Address -> Value
ariyossss
athlon_crazy 06/03/2010
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