Shoot Holes In My Migration Plan. Hyper-V to ESXi

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sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
I am going to migrate my server that's running Server 2008 R2 w/ Hyper-V to ESXi 5.1 and pass through the HBA to oi-napp-it for storage in ESXi, and for SMB/NFS shares.
I have been playing with oi/napp-it for about 5 days now, tweaking, reading, tweaking, troubleshooting failed disks (4 of 8 1TB disks I had at the house were failing or were failed), and I genuinely like it!
I have previous Solaris experience, so Openindiana is in concept fairly easy enough for me to use. I like the kernel based SMB/CIFS, it's a hell of a lot faster than Samba. On the Desktop version of Openindiana, the desktop environment uses GNOME 2 which I love, I am not a fan of GNOME 3, and everything is right where I know it should be in the GUI.
The pkg command for managing application packages works rationally, and I picked up on it's switches and usage very fast.
napp-it is very easy to use thanks to the user interface being rationally laid out, it puts all the power of ZFS into a few mouse clicks with gea's HTML and PERL magic. (I don't have an issue with CLIs, I have been using command line based operating systems daily since 1995)
I would like to recover the additional 3.63 TB of lost by the ServRAID M1015 w/ 8x 2TB Hitachi 7K3000 in RAID 10 @ 7.27 TB formatted, and use JBOD w/ RAID-Z2 which would get me 10.9 TB formatted.
I have been administering VMware servers for a living for the last 12 years, so of course, ESXi is old hat for me. ESXi 5.1 is a huge improvement over 5.0, which was riddled with bugs and issues that drove me nuts.
I had such a crappy time with ESXi 5.0 when it came out, I blew it away at home, and replaced it with Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V because it just works.

STH members have an opportunity to shoot holes in my migration plan.

Current Config:
Server 2008 R2 (2k8 box)
16 GB RAM
Xeon E3 1230
Supermicro X9SCM-F
2x Intel Dual Port NICs
Rosewill RSV-L4411
Crucial M4 64 GB Boot Drive - 8x 2TB Hitachi 7K3000 - 4x Western Digital RE3 500 GB
IBM ServRAID M1015 flashed w/ LSI SAS9211-8i in RAID 10 (Hitachi Drives formatted 7.27 TB) - 3Ware 9650SE in RAID 5(WD RE3 Drives formatted 1.4 TB)
The 4x WD drives in RAID 5 are blank w/ 1.4 TB free, everything else is sitting on the 7.27 TB RAID 10 array of Hitachi disks
Hyper-V Role - 1 2k8 r2 domain controller, 1 win7, 2x LAMP servers - VMs use 1 TB of data for VHDs that are thin provisioned
MS iSCSI Software Target consuming 1 TB data
Shares consuming 2 TB data

New Config:
ESXi 5.1
I will be re-configuring the ServRAID M1015 for JBOD w/ the 8 Hitachi 2 TB Disks and moving the 3Ware 9650SE and 4x WD 1.4 TB RAID 5 array to the oi-nappit box for migration purposes (the array will be reformatted)
250 GB laptop disk for backing up ESXi with ghettoVCB (http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760) Thanks Mike!


Tools Being Used:
(NAS) - Physical oi-napp-it server with 3.9 TB pool, 1.4 TB pool (5.4 TB Total)
Regedit to export the Windows Shares registry keys from the 2008 R2 config for creating shares and setting security in the new oi/napp-it VM
Starwind Converter to convert the Hyper-V VHDs to VMware VMDKs
VMWare vCenter Converter to P2V the Physical Windows 2008 R2 machine incase things get real nasty(Hyper-V Role and iSCSI Target will be removed prior)
MS DNS to export the DNS Entries from Domain Controller for new VMWare VMs, the IP's will need to be reentered upon recreation w/ ESXi
oi.iso on the NAS


Steps:
Install Starwind Converter on 2k8 box
Install VMware vCenter Converter on workstation
Copy 2k8 box shares to NAS
Export DNS Entries from MS DNS on Domain Controller
Temporarily change DNS information on NAS, 2k8 server, and workstation to use router instead of Domain Controller
Power off all Hyper-V VMs
Power off server
Power off NAS
Move 9650SE controller and WD disks to NAS
Power on 2k8 box
Power on NAS
Conigure 9650SE & WD disks on NAS, create pool.
Copy contents of MS iSCSI target to NAS
Start converting VHDs to VMDKs onto NAS
Remove Hyper-V Role
P2V 2k8 box as files to NAS
Power off server
Power on server and reconfigure ServRAID M1015 to JBOD w/ 8x 2TB Hitachi's
Install and configure ESXi 5.1x to 64 GB Crucial M4
Upload oi.iso to ESXi, install, and configure oi w/ napp-it VM with same name and IP address as 2k8 box
Create a pool in VM NAS for NFS share as Storage for ESXi, mount volumes in ESXi
Configure Comstar for iSCSI Target

Create new disksless Windows 2008 R2 server for the Domain Controller in ESXi, upload and attach converted VMDK to machine. Install VMware Tools and reboot.
Assign IP address from exported DNS entries on Domain Controller, verify functionality.
Delete 2k8 box from Active Directory
Change physical NAS, virtual NAS, workstation, and ESXi network DNS settings to use migrated Domain Controller as the DNS server. Restart SMB service on physical NAS and the VM NAS.
Join ESXi to Active Directory
Join NAS VM to Active Directory
Create ZFS Folders from exported 2k8 box file server registry keys
Set permissions on new ZFS Folders from the exported 2k8r2 file server registry keys
Copy shares from physical NAS to new VM NAS' newly created ZFS Folders
Re-create diskless Windows 7 machine, 2x diskless Linux machines, and upload and attach their respective VMDKs, install VMWare tools and reboot. Assign IP addresses to machines
Connect machines to Comstar iSCSI Target

Finalization:
Test!
Test!
Test!
Test!
 
Last edited:

Mike

Member
May 29, 2012
482
16
18
EU
I would throw in a small secondary disk, 'ol laptop disk or w/e, on the host and sync the image(s) overnight with ghettovcb or alike. VMwarez sadly isnt really suited for home use where you want redundancy on the lowest storage level. If your ssd gives out your zfs targets will become unresponsive which will crash all your vms in under a minute. At work you would just throw a host in maitenance mode but at home we do not have that luxury, diagnosing it is also a pain so... Well, get that extra disk, you will not regret it if you ask me.
 

sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
I would throw in a small secondary disk, 'ol laptop disk or w/e, on the host and sync the image(s) overnight with ghettovcb or alike. VMwarez sadly isnt really suited for home use where you want redundancy on the lowest storage level. If your ssd gives out your zfs targets will become unresponsive which will crash all your vms in under a minute. At work you would just throw a host in maitenance mode but at home we do not have that luxury, diagnosing it is also a pain so... Well, get that extra disk, you will not regret it if you ask me.
Great idea! I will do that. I have a 250gb laptop disk that will do the job nicely! (Velcro mounted on the side like my SSD since all the bays are full with caddies)
Here is a link to those interested in ghettoVCB

It's funny how you saw that right away, I am so used to dealing with HA clusters all day, this completely slipped my mind. This is why I created this thread. Thanks Mike!
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
Just a dumb idea... document what you do. Might be very helpful for those doing the same. Could do a main site post on that certainly.
 

sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
Just a dumb idea... document what you do. Might be very helpful for those doing the same. Could do a main site post on that certainly.
That's not a dumb idea at all. I have the plan :) All I have to do is document the results, I will keep Word open as I am diving in.
 

sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
The migration is done! I skipped using VMware vCenter Converter. I did not document the installation and configuration of ESXi. I did document and create a write-up about migrating Hyper-V to ESXi.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
Great! I think many people will benefit from that one.