File Server Migration

[Scrambles]

Hey Folks,

 

Just seeking a bit of advice.

We recently got two new servers running S2D on Server 2016.

Currently, we have our file server (Server 2012r2) on it's own host running as a VM. That VM then has an ISCSI connection to our SAN where it hosts the files.

What I am looking to do is take this server off and move it onto our new virtual hosts and have it completly virtual.

The file server currently isn't set up with DFS and I don't know exactly how many scripts / services point to the UNC of the file server so during the move I would like to keep the name if possible.

We backup the file server each night using Veeam Window's Agent that is controlled by our VeeamBR server.

 

What I am currently thinking is -:

Restore the file server from Veeam to a VHDX file on the new host.

Build a new file server (Server 2016?) and attach the VHDX

Export shares from old server to the new

Run Robocopy from the old server to the new to sync over any data that may have been missed after the restore

Rename the old file server

Create a CNAME record with the old server name pointing to the new server

Create a DFS NameSpace on the new server so that in future if the server ever needs to be moved it will be more straightforward.

 

Does this sound about right or am I over complicating things ?

 

Thanks in advance !

[snagrat]

Don’t do the CNAME bit but instead use “netdom computername server1 /add:oldname.domain.local

 

It’s Microsoft newer method of doing it rather than through DNS

[DavidYoung]

Hi,

 

If you are backing the server up with Veeam Agent then you can basically do a P2V conversion really easily and don't need to build up a new server. We have just done this at one of our sites and it worked great. You can also use the instant recovery to boot the server live from the backup storage and let it migrate itself in the background. It took about a day for just under 1TB server but that was running over USB. It means your downtime is virtually nil as you just need to run the latest backup, shutdown the original server and start the recovery on the virtual host.

 

You need to use Veeam Backup & Replication to do the instant restore but it works with the free version.

 

Off topic: How are you finding S2D?

[Scrambles]

I did the restore with Veeam and it took about 4 hours for 1.4TB. Pretty happy with that. Server seems to be ticking along quite nicely.

S2D has only been running for about a week now. However, so far I am impressed. Though, that may be due to we have some SSD storage now.

We only have a two node setup. One in each server room with a 25Gb direct link between the two for storage and a 2Gb storage / network access (This will one day be upgraded to 10Gb). Done a few failovers to test and it has worked flawlessly. When one host is down the servers migrate to the next host. Rebooting a VM takes a few seconds now.

We are using our old server set up (Two servers + SAN) as a replica server just in case.

 

Still a little nervous using it in production but so far I am happy with it.