Expanding and moving .vhdx

[shaazaminator]

I run an on prem Exchange 2016 Server which is growing too large for the current storage subsystem.
To rectify this I will be creating new .vhdx files on a different storage array, creating new Exchange databases on these .vhdx's and moving mailboxes to the new database.

In B&R (v9.5 u4 btw) Veeam just sees the VM you are backing up and not the .vhdx files associated with it.

This particular backup job is a normal backup, replicated to another Hyper-V server, and a backup copy sent to a cloud repository.

I pretty sure I know the answer to this, but will ask anyway

Since I am moving and enlarging all the .vhdx files associated with the VM, I will need to create new Active Full backups, stop replication and delete all replicated VM's on the repository server before starting a new replication cycle, and create a new backup copy job for the cloud repository.

Otherwise my backups/replication/backup copy will fail due to the differential in .vhdx size correct?

Thanks for any input!

- Doug

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

Veeam just sees the VM you are backing up and not the .vhdx files associated with it.

What do you mean with "associated"? As soon as you add a disk to a VM, the new disk will be backed up. It does not matter on which storage array the virtual disk is.

Best regards,
Hannes

[shaazaminator]

Hi Hannes,

You are correct about adding or moving a .vhdx, Veeam doesn't really care.

My concern is by enlarging the existing .vhdx files Veeam will say "hey, I was expecting a 1 TB drive and now it's a 2 TB drive. What am I supposed to do?"

I recall doing this before in earlier versions of B&R and had the backups fail. This being my Exchange Server, failed backups are really not an option here unfortunately.

- Doug

[foggy]

Hi Doug, I'm a bit confused about what type of jobs you're running since you're mentioning both backup and replication. Anyway, for VHDX disks, both are transparent and should run normally after disk resize (and subsequent VM reboot) - the only consequence is CBT reset forcing full read of the entire disk.