• This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated March 16, 2018 by Tobias B.

Issue Moving Data to New Recovery Datastores

  • John M
    December 13, 2016 07:11:12 PM

    Running v4.5u1, vCenter target.  I need to move recovery data from existing datastores to new datastores on our new storage array.  According to the documentation, once the new datastores are added to the ZORG on the ZCM, I can simply edit the VPG, and change the  “Recovery Volume Location” on the “Storage” tab.

    I did this, and vCenter did move many VRAH VMDKs.  However, when I tried to remove the old datastore, the VPG went into an error state telling me that the VPG was still using that datastore.  When I added it again, the error went away.  Anybody ever seen this happen before?  Is the documentation incomplete and must the moves be done manually in vCenter?

    Matthew C
    December 13, 2016 09:15:47 PM

    Yes, I believe the change does not move all the data. You have to storage vMotion the existing data to get it to move. However, be aware, that vSphere by default, renames disks when you storage vMotion them, in an effort to align the names of the disks with the VM. So if you have a VRA with say 10 VM’s that are targeting that, instead of the disks be labeled \VM01.vmdk and \VM02.vmdk, they will automatically be renamed to match your VRA, so if your VRA is named COOLVRA01, your disks will then be named \COOLVRA01.vmdk and COOLVRA01_1.vmdk and so on and so forth. If that all makes sense.

    I discovered this when I went through the exact same thing you did. I need to move all my target data to a new datastore. I started with just one VPG, changed the setting, realized it didn’t move all the data, opened ticket, they told me to storage vmotion, I did, I noticed the name change (which really stinks btw) asked Zerto, it’s a vmware thing so they can’t do anything about it. Support’s stance on this was you shouldn’t care about the names, you can always export the config and see what disk goes to what VM. That doesn’t work for me. Not at all.

    So, if you want to keep all your names proper (which I certainly do, as it’s a mess to have random VRA names for all the protected VM’s) then what you have to do is document the VPG settings, delete the VPG, manually move the files to the new datastore, recreate the VPG. You will lose all journal data though, Zerto support says there is no way to put that back in, even if you copy the data. They just don’t have a provision for seeding existing journal data.

    Hope that helps.

     

    John M
    March 9, 2017 05:06:18 PM

    There is an advanced setting in vmware that you can tweak to stop the name changes on svmotion, FYI.

    Tobias B
    March 16, 2018 12:54:07 PM

    What settings is that, does it exist in vSphere 6.5 ?

    I have a challenge decommisioning a volume and move the VM’s to a new datastore.

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