Exchange 2013 Virtualization

[Kellen.Flood]

Hey All,

We currently use Veeam and have it deployed in our Netapp FAS infrastructure. We currently run Exchange 2013 in a DAG (3 node) setup and want to use Veeam to backup the passive node, but the Exchange Databases are ISCSI mapped instead of VMDK. This now limits us to the endpoint tool, which hasnt worked the best so far since it isnt "fully" application aware and cant truncate logs.

Does anyone have a good link that would provide steps or best practices on how to convert them to a VMDK?

On another note our Instant VM Recoveries take about 1 minute on the rest of our infrastructure.

Thanks in advance

[csinetops]

I'd say probably the most risk/stress free way I could think of would be to create the vmdk's, create new databases on the vmdk's and migrate your mailboxes to the new DB's. Then disconnect and decommission the old iscsi luns.

You could always use vmware converter or something to convert the iscsi to vmdk but that involves some pretty substantial down time. Same with changing the iscsi to RDM and then storage vmotion to vmdk, down time and risk there too. I am all about mitigating risk and stress

[Mike Resseler]

I would personally create the VMDK, attach it to the VM and then use PowerShell to do the move of the database (I believe all the information is here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lib ... =exchg.150).aspx) Read very carefully because there is an important note about replicated databases in a DAG.

When the move is done, disconnect the iSCSI drives

[Kellen.Flood]

@mike resseler the link looks to be broken or incorrect. I will do some digging. Appreciate the help guys.

[Mike Resseler]

Yes, for some reason it didn't attached the last part of the link... Let me try again: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124742(v=exchg.150.aspx)