Migrate system to new install in VMWare ESXi

[jonny6pak]

Hello, I'm not exactly sure where to post this, but I'm hoping someone can at least point me in the right direction.

For reasons I don't really feel like explaining, I need to take my current FreeNAS 8.0 server and convert it over to a VMWare ESXi server. For the time being (hopefully only a few months), I'm going to run FreeNAS in a virtual machine inside VMWare. What's the best way to go about this migration without losing data and settings. Ideally, I want to backup the FreeNAS install and my data, take the raid array's offline (and physically disconnect the drives from the controller card), format the OS drive, install VMWare ESXi, re-install FreeNAS, plug back in the arrays and add them back to the server and have everything up and running.

I'm lost as to the best way to backup the FreeNAS restore and how to deal with the array drives so that I just have to plug the drives back in to get up and running. Absent specific system configurations, what's the best way for me to take everything down and get it back up in a fresh install?

Thanks!!

 

[jonny6pak]

Well, after a month of research I think I have all this almost have this completely figured out. For the sake of anyone else out there thinking of this kind of move--it's probably not a good idea unless you really know what you're doing or you don't care about losing data. Otherwise, there is a good chance of losing everything. At any rate, the best solution for me involves setting up the ESXi VM so that it has direct passthrough access to a RAID controller:

First, if you don't have a dedicated RAID controller, stop right here and do not proceed. I'm not covering the other methods of making this work. While it's possible to use RDM or iSCSI to make this work, I'm not getting into all that.

Next, verify that your hardware (all your hardware) is fully compatible with VMWare ESXi. As it pertains to your RAID controller, it must allow passthrough access--letting the guest OS have direct access to the drives (check that it works with VMDirectPath). This feature doesn't work with every RAID controller out there--if you didn't check compatibility, you're SOL. Also, note that all the disks attached to your RAID controller will only be accessible to the FreeNAS VM. You can't share these disks with other VMs. If you have other VMs that need access to the array, use the features in FreeNAS to share data over the network.

Now, if everything is compatible, backup all your data on the RAID array, backup your FreeNAS configuration, export your volumes on the existing system, make sure Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU is enabled in the bios (this won't work without those features), and then install ESXi on a disk separate from your array. If you're starting from scratch, you can skip the backup points.

Once ESXi is ready, login to vSphere and select the option to configure the appropriate ESXi server. Now go to "Advanced" -> and “Configure Passthrough”. You'll be prompted to select the passthrough devices. Make sure you correct the correct device--you want to select your RAID controller and not something like a PCI bridge or a USB controller. Once you select the device, the window should tell you that the device is passthrough capable. If you don't see such a message, go back to your research and double check things. Now click "OK." Now reboot ESXi.

Once you reboot, turn off your FreeNAS VM (you don't actually need FreeNAS installed yet, but you need the VM created). For your FreeNAS VM, go to the "Summary" tab -> "Edit Settings" and select the option to add a PCI Device and click "Next." The installation wizard will appear and you should be able to select your RAID controller from the drop-down menu. Click "Next" and then "Finish." Start the VM once the configuration is complete. At this point you can install/run FreeNAS and import your array accordingly.

Since the VM has direct access to the RAID controller, the data stored to your RAID array should be usable outside of the virtual machine. If your system blows up and you need to transfer the drives to a new computer, you can do that even if the computer is a dedicated FreeNAS box rather than an ESXi system.

If you're using a SAS2008 HBA card, then this might also be of some use to you http://forums.freenas.org/showthrea...S2008-HBA-and-multiple-CPUs-and-Multiple-Nics