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 :

• Failover Exchange resources to 2nd MS Cluster Box
• Down 1st MS Cluster box
• Present quorum, logs & data LUN to one target ESX (remember only present it to one ESX)

Migration Steps :

• Boot the 1st Cluster machine using vCenter bootable CD (4.1.1).
• Choose to only migrate system disk and retain the size as is.
• Change the size of other local disk if any.
• Un-check all network card for auto connect.
• Initiate the migration process and wait until finish.

Post-Migration VM Setting :

Once migration completed, I follow VMware document which mentioned how to configure the VM based on “Clustering Physical and VMs” setup. At this critical stage, wrong setup might cause your VM stuck and failed to boot properly.

• Edit VM settings.
• Change 1st scsi adapter from BUS to LSI logic parallel.
• Add quorum LUN as RDM(physical mode) -> new scsi adapter (scsi1:0) -> scsi bus sharing as physical.
• Add other shared disk like exchange logs, data under same scsi adapter as above.
• Make sure virtual NIC not auto connect
• Boot the VM

Post-Migration Windows OS:

Like normal practices, I removed any hardware vendor monitoring, MPIO software, anti-virus & etc before I go for VMware tools installation.

• Removed anti-virus software
• Removed any MPIO software which prevent the machine from seeing RDM
• Install VMware Tools
• Configure network for local & heartbeat
• Reboot the machine (Tick your VM virtual nick for “connected and auto connect at power on”)

Post Migration - Cluster Services :

Once finished with the second reboot, you can check your cluster services via “Cluster Administrator” and start the Failover process to this new VM.

• Right click My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management
• Make sure all shared LUN are there with “unknown” state & unreadable
• Open Cluster Administrator
• Start Cluster Services
• Verify Cluster machine, resources and network adapter status from local and other node as well
• Start Failover all Exchange resources
• Make sure all shared LUN were mounted successfully and can be seen from My computer
• Make sure and monitor every line of event occur in Windows event viewer

Notes : I’m not a Windows certified nor MS Cluster expert but the above steps prove enough for me to make sure my Cluster services running very well. Seek advice from MS or Windows expert if you have any clustering issue.