Move cluster data drives to new cluster

We currently have a two node Windows 2003 R2 32 bit cluster. There are
about 6 data "drives" in it, running on our EMC SAN.

We're wanting to replace the cluster with newer hardware. I've set up a new
2003 R2 x64 two node cluster, and I want to move the data drives from the
existing cluster to the new one. I'm just wanting to move the data drives, I
have a new quorum drive on the new cluster.

The total of all the drives is about 4TB, so I a backup/restore isn't really
an option , I just want to move the SAN resources from the old cluster to the
one.

The SAN side of the move isn't an issue, I can move the LUN's from the old
group to the new one, but I'm looking for some information about having the
new cluster properly recognized the transferred "drive"

I've done some searching, but most of what I'm finding is moving the data
from one SAN to another, but keeping the same server hardware.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

There shouldn't be any issues doing this. Just unmask the storage from the
old cluster and present the disks to the new cluster nodes. Once the storage
is presented, you should just be able to add these disks as cluster disk
resources.

Regards,
John

Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner

"Mike O." <> wrote in message
newsA60143C-45E3-49E4-AA3E-...
> We currently have a two node Windows 2003 R2 32 bit cluster. There are
> about 6 data "drives" in it, running on our EMC SAN.
>
> We're wanting to replace the cluster with newer hardware. I've set up a
> new
> 2003 R2 x64 two node cluster, and I want to move the data drives from the
> existing cluster to the new one. I'm just wanting to move the data
> drives, I
> have a new quorum drive on the new cluster.
>
> The total of all the drives is about 4TB, so I a backup/restore isn't
> really
> an option , I just want to move the SAN resources from the old cluster to
> the
> one.
>
> The SAN side of the move isn't an issue, I can move the LUN's from the old
> group to the new one, but I'm looking for some information about having
> the
> new cluster properly recognized the transferred "drive"
>
> I've done some searching, but most of what I'm finding is moving the data
> from one SAN to another, but keeping the same server hardware.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What I'm looking for is what I should do on the Windows side before removing
them from the cluster group on the SAN. I assume I need to take the physical
disk resource off line, but shoud I delete the resource from the existing
cluster before moving it at the SAN level?

Then once I add it to the new cluster group on the SAN, do I just add it as
cluster resources using the steps in KB555312? That article is the steps I
use when I add a new disk to a cluster, but I wasn't sure if that's the same
process to add a drive that already has data.

Will the transferred drive automatically pick up the same drive letter, or
do I need to re-assign the letter in disk admin after presenting it to the
new cluster?


Mike O.

"John Toner [MVP]" wrote:

> There shouldn't be any issues doing this. Just unmask the storage from the
> old cluster and present the disks to the new cluster nodes. Once the storage
> is presented, you should just be able to add these disks as cluster disk
> resources.
>
> Regards,
> John
>
> Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner
>
> "Mike O." <> wrote in message
> newsA60143C-45E3-49E4-AA3E-...
> > We currently have a two node Windows 2003 R2 32 bit cluster. There are
> > about 6 data "drives" in it, running on our EMC SAN.
> >
> > We're wanting to replace the cluster with newer hardware. I've set up a
> > new
> > 2003 R2 x64 two node cluster, and I want to move the data drives from the
> > existing cluster to the new one. I'm just wanting to move the data
> > drives, I
> > have a new quorum drive on the new cluster.
> >
> > The total of all the drives is about 4TB, so I a backup/restore isn't
> > really
> > an option , I just want to move the SAN resources from the old cluster to
> > the
> > one.
> >
> > The SAN side of the move isn't an issue, I can move the LUN's from the old
> > group to the new one, but I'm looking for some information about having
> > the
> > new cluster properly recognized the transferred "drive"
> >
> > I've done some searching, but most of what I'm finding is moving the data
> > from one SAN to another, but keeping the same server hardware.
> >
> > Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>
>

All of the answers depend on how you are copying the data from your old SAN
to the new SAN. If the disk signatures are being copied, you pretty much do
not need to do anything at the cluster level other than take things offline
while the SAN swap is occurring.

Assuming you're doing some sort of backup/restore operation, you'd need to
add the new SAN disks in as new cluster disk resources.

I'd recommend reviewing Russ's blog for more details on this:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/clusterhelp/...l-22-2005.aspx


Regards,
John

Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner

"Mike O." <> wrote in message
news:157A9841-092E-4B64-9281-...
> What I'm looking for is what I should do on the Windows side before
> removing
> them from the cluster group on the SAN. I assume I need to take the
> physical
> disk resource off line, but shoud I delete the resource from the existing
> cluster before moving it at the SAN level?
>
> Then once I add it to the new cluster group on the SAN, do I just add it
> as
> cluster resources using the steps in KB555312? That article is the steps
> I
> use when I add a new disk to a cluster, but I wasn't sure if that's the
> same
> process to add a drive that already has data.
>
> Will the transferred drive automatically pick up the same drive letter, or
> do I need to re-assign the letter in disk admin after presenting it to the
> new cluster?
>
>
> Mike O.
>
> "John Toner [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> There shouldn't be any issues doing this. Just unmask the storage from
>> the
>> old cluster and present the disks to the new cluster nodes. Once the
>> storage
>> is presented, you should just be able to add these disks as cluster disk
>> resources.
>>
>> Regards,
>> John
>>
>> Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner
>>
>> "Mike O." <> wrote in message
>> newsA60143C-45E3-49E4-AA3E-...
>> > We currently have a two node Windows 2003 R2 32 bit cluster. There
>> > are
>> > about 6 data "drives" in it, running on our EMC SAN.
>> >
>> > We're wanting to replace the cluster with newer hardware. I've set up
>> > a
>> > new
>> > 2003 R2 x64 two node cluster, and I want to move the data drives from
>> > the
>> > existing cluster to the new one. I'm just wanting to move the data
>> > drives, I
>> > have a new quorum drive on the new cluster.
>> >
>> > The total of all the drives is about 4TB, so I a backup/restore isn't
>> > really
>> > an option , I just want to move the SAN resources from the old cluster
>> > to
>> > the
>> > one.
>> >
>> > The SAN side of the move isn't an issue, I can move the LUN's from the
>> > old
>> > group to the new one, but I'm looking for some information about having
>> > the
>> > new cluster properly recognized the transferred "drive"
>> >
>> > I've done some searching, but most of what I'm finding is moving the
>> > data
>> > from one SAN to another, but keeping the same server hardware.
>> >
>> > Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>

I'm not "copying" anything, we're not switching SANs, we're switching the
cluster servers. Our existing cluster is a two node cluster running on 32
bit Windows 2003 R2 enterprise. The "drives" are storage LUN's on an EMC
CX700 array. What I've done is create a two node x64 Windows 2003 R2
enterprise cluster (with a new quorum disk). The new cluster is on the
same SAN, so I want to move the LUN's with the user data from the existing
cluster to the new one, without having to do a backup/restore of 4TB+ of
data. Since I'm going from 32bit to 64bit, I couldn't just add the new
nodes and retire the old ones.

I have a couple of test "drives (LUNS)" with some junk data on the existing
cluster. I took one drive resource offline, deleted the cluster resource,
then moved it from from the old storage group to the new one on the CX700
array. I assigned the drive letter on the new server, then manually
created the cluster resource following MS KB555312. The new drive shows up
OK, and it appears all the data is OK, but I just wanted to make sure I
wasn't missing anything.

I did something like this several years ago in a test environment, but
again, I just wanted to try to avoid any mishaps.

Regarding the link to the blog, we're basically doing the opposite of what
he's talking about. We're keeping the same SAN, but moving to a new
cluster.


"John Toner [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> All of the answers depend on how you are copying the data from your old
> SAN to the new SAN. If the disk signatures are being copied, you pretty
> much do not need to do anything at the cluster level other than take
> things offline while the SAN swap is occurring.
>
> Assuming you're doing some sort of backup/restore operation, you'd need
> to add the new SAN disks in as new cluster disk resources.
>
> I'd recommend reviewing Russ's blog for more details on this:
>
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/clusterhelp/...l-22-2005.aspx
>
>
> Regards,
> John
>
> Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner
>
> "Mike O." <> wrote in message
> news:157A9841-092E-4B64-9281-...
>> What I'm looking for is what I should do on the Windows side before
>> removing
>> them from the cluster group on the SAN. I assume I need to take the
>> physical
>> disk resource off line, but shoud I delete the resource from the
>> existing
>> cluster before moving it at the SAN level?
>>
>> Then once I add it to the new cluster group on the SAN, do I just add it
>> as
>> cluster resources using the steps in KB555312? That article is the
>> steps I
>> use when I add a new disk to a cluster, but I wasn't sure if that's the
>> same
>> process to add a drive that already has data.
>>
>> Will the transferred drive automatically pick up the same drive letter,
>> or
>> do I need to re-assign the letter in disk admin after presenting it to
>> the
>> new cluster?
>>
>>
>> Mike O.
>>
>> "John Toner [MVP]" wrote:
>>
>>> There shouldn't be any issues doing this. Just unmask the storage from
>>> the
>>> old cluster and present the disks to the new cluster nodes. Once the
>>> storage
>>> is presented, you should just be able to add these disks as cluster
>>> disk
>>> resources.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> John
>>>
>>> Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner
>>>
>>> "Mike O." <> wrote in message
>>> newsA60143C-45E3-49E4-AA3E-...
>>> > We currently have a two node Windows 2003 R2 32 bit cluster. There
>>> > are
>>> > about 6 data "drives" in it, running on our EMC SAN.
>>> >
>>> > We're wanting to replace the cluster with newer hardware. I've set
>>> > up a
>>> > new
>>> > 2003 R2 x64 two node cluster, and I want to move the data drives from
>>> > the
>>> > existing cluster to the new one. I'm just wanting to move the data
>>> > drives, I
>>> > have a new quorum drive on the new cluster.
>>> >
>>> > The total of all the drives is about 4TB, so I a backup/restore isn't
>>> > really
>>> > an option , I just want to move the SAN resources from the old
>>> > cluster to
>>> > the
>>> > one.
>>> >
>>> > The SAN side of the move isn't an issue, I can move the LUN's from
>>> > the old
>>> > group to the new one, but I'm looking for some information about
>>> > having
>>> > the
>>> > new cluster properly recognized the transferred "drive"
>>> >
>>> > I've done some searching, but most of what I'm finding is moving the
>>> > data
>>> > from one SAN to another, but keeping the same server hardware.
>>> >
>>> > Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

Looks like you've pretty much got it covered. Only thing I'd add would be to
make sure that the devices are removed from the storage group on the CX
array before adding the LUNs to the storage group for the 64 bit hosts.

Regards,
John

Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner

"Mike O." <> wrote in message
news:%...
> I'm not "copying" anything, we're not switching SANs, we're switching the
> cluster servers. Our existing cluster is a two node cluster running on 32
> bit Windows 2003 R2 enterprise. The "drives" are storage LUN's on an EMC
> CX700 array. What I've done is create a two node x64 Windows 2003 R2
> enterprise cluster (with a new quorum disk). The new cluster is on the
> same SAN, so I want to move the LUN's with the user data from the existing
> cluster to the new one, without having to do a backup/restore of 4TB+ of
> data. Since I'm going from 32bit to 64bit, I couldn't just add the new
> nodes and retire the old ones.
>
> I have a couple of test "drives (LUNS)" with some junk data on the
> existing cluster. I took one drive resource offline, deleted the cluster
> resource, then moved it from from the old storage group to the new one on
> the CX700 array. I assigned the drive letter on the new server, then
> manually created the cluster resource following MS KB555312. The new
> drive shows up OK, and it appears all the data is OK, but I just wanted to
> make sure I wasn't missing anything.
>
> I did something like this several years ago in a test environment, but
> again, I just wanted to try to avoid any mishaps.
>
> Regarding the link to the blog, we're basically doing the opposite of what
> he's talking about. We're keeping the same SAN, but moving to a new
> cluster.

I went ahead and did the work today, everything went OK. Here's the
process I followed:

Confirmed that our Operations group had a clean backup (just in case!)

Exported out the cluster resource settings, built some batch files
to re-create the disk resources and shares later.
I shut down the passive node of each cluster (to keep multiple
systems from accessing the same "drive")
Then I went down the line, took the file share resources off line
Took the physical disk resources off line
Took the cluster name and IP offline (we're keeping the cluster name
on the new server)
Deleted the physical disk resources from the old cluster.
On the CX700 I removed the LUN's from the storage group with the 32
bit servers, and added it to the storage group with the 64 bit
Set up the cluster name and IP on the new cluster
For each disk, I used disk manager to assign the appropriate
letter.
Ran the batch file to create each disk resource and bring it on
line
Ran the batch file to create each share
Brought the passive node up
Failed over and then back.

Everything is working good. The cluster resources take about 30 seconds to
fail over (210 shares, 8 "drives", 4+TB, something like 12 million files).

I actually did the move on the first couple of drives one at a time,
without using the batch files. Once I felt it was working OK, I did the
rest of the drives together.

"John Toner [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Looks like you've pretty much got it covered. Only thing I'd add would be
> to make sure that the devices are removed from the storage group on the
> CX array before adding the LUNs to the storage group for the 64 bit
> hosts.
>
> Regards,
> John
>
> Visit my blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jtoner
>
> "Mike O." <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>> I'm not "copying" anything, we're not switching SANs, we're switching
>> the cluster servers. Our existing cluster is a two node cluster running
>> on 32 bit Windows 2003 R2 enterprise. The "drives" are storage LUN's on
>> an EMC CX700 array. What I've done is create a two node x64 Windows
>> 2003 R2 enterprise cluster (with a new quorum disk). The new cluster is
>> on the same SAN, so I want to move the LUN's with the user data from the
>> existing cluster to the new one, without having to do a backup/restore
>> of 4TB+ of data. Since I'm going from 32bit to 64bit, I couldn't just
>> add the new nodes and retire the old ones.
>>
>> I have a couple of test "drives (LUNS)" with some junk data on the
>> existing cluster. I took one drive resource offline, deleted the
>> cluster resource, then moved it from from the old storage group to the
>> new one on the CX700 array. I assigned the drive letter on the new
>> server, then manually created the cluster resource following MS
>> KB555312. The new drive shows up OK, and it appears all the data is OK,
>> but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.
>>
>> I did something like this several years ago in a test environment, but
>> again, I just wanted to try to avoid any mishaps.
>>
>> Regarding the link to the blog, we're basically doing the opposite of
>> what he's talking about. We're keeping the same SAN, but moving to a
>> new cluster.
>
>