On 08/06/2012 17:33, Emmanuel Noobadmin wrote:
> I've got a CentOS 5 server that I want to migrate over into a
> virtualized instance.
> The problem is I need to minimize downtime so was trying to figure out
> a way to "live" clone the original.
>
> Initially, I thought I could do this via exporting an iSCSI target
> from the virtual host, create a MD raid 1 array on the C5 server, wait
> for it to sync, then shutdown the physical server and switch to the
> virtual one.
>
> But after getting iSCSI working... I realize I could not create a md
> device on a mounted disk. Unfortunately this old C5 wasn't setup with
> md raid 1 originally so I can't just add a the iSCSI target as an
> additional member for a triplicate.
>
> So I remembered DRBD was supposed to be used for replication.
>
> But after getting things set up, running the drbd-admin create-md
> command gave me this scary warning it will destroy data on the disk.
> Apparently because drbd writes meta data to the drive. So that appears
> to be a no go too.
>
> Am I missing something glaringly obvious here, or is the only way I'm
> going be able to migrate is to shutdown the C5 server for a few hours
> while duping the old drives? Would greatly appreciate any pointers how
> best to do this.
>
You don't say what virtualisation platform you are using is, but if it's
VMware, then you can use VMware converter to do the migration. This can,
if you want, clone the physical computer into VMware, shut down the
physical computer and bring up the new virtual instance. All whilst the
physical remained up. I've used it for a few Linux boxes, where I've
wanted a quick dev version of an existing server and its been fine.
I guess, you could try pulling it into an ESXi host, and then exporting
that in a format whatever virtualisation program it is you use supports...
Regards,
Tris
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