Combine fracture VM folders

pmoncho

ESXI 5.5 Essentials with local storage and NAS datastore's

In prepping for an upgrade to ESXI 6.5 I am going through the VM's on my three hosts.

For my current 2008R2 Fileserver VM ( with SW Network Monitor and Email server) named filesvr1, I found out the following data locations;

Local Datastore folder filesvr1 has 3 of my hard drive files (vmdk files)
NAS Datastore folder filesvr1_1 has 4th hard drive (vmdk file)
NAS Datastore folder filesvr1 has the config and log files

I want to combine the filesvr1 folder on the NAS datastore with local datastore folder.

My first thought is to just move the config/log files from the NAS to the local datastore, change the .vmx file to point the .vswp filename but don't know if that is possible.
Remove from inventory, move the files together in the same folder on the local datastore and then add back to inventory. I believe vCenter will fix the .vmx file???
Clone to a different host on a single datastore and then clone back to original host.

TIA

pmoncho

@pmoncho
Just realized, after rereading my post, I didn't actually ask a question.

If I want to combine the filesvr1 folder on the NAS datastore with local datastore folder which of the three options above would be best?

In the past, I've only cloned VM's so options 1 and 2 above are new to me.

DustinB3403

Being a file server, I would simply create a new filesvr2 with enough space to meet your needs and then copy everything over.

DustinB3403

The whole process you have described in both 1 and 2 is overly complicated as far as I can understand.

Simply create a new VM on the storage that has enough space for everything, copy everything, robocopy or xcopy or rsync and then re-share the information.

pmoncho

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

The whole process you have described in both 1 and 2 is overly complicated as far as I can understand.

Simply create a new VM on the storage that has enough space for everything, copy everything, robocopy or xcopy or rsync and then re-share the information.

That is a good idea too. I was hesitant as this is our email server and SW Network Monitor also.

I was thinking about #2 as the vmdk (HD files) are fine where they are at. It is only the config files I need to actually move. That would be moving 10 Mb vs 500 Gb of data.

I fall short in understanding the Remove/Add from Inventory process in vCenter. Did some googling and searching SW and it seems pretty easy. It actually seems to darn easy that it makes me wonder if I am missing something in the process.

DustinB3403

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

The whole process you have described in both 1 and 2 is overly complicated as far as I can understand.

Simply create a new VM on the storage that has enough space for everything, copy everything, robocopy or xcopy or rsync and then re-share the information.

That is a good idea too. I was hesitant as this is our email server and SW Network Monitor also.

OK so a few issues here are that you described this as being a single role server (file server) and are also now saying it is your Email server and SW Network Monitor Server. The roles are fine, but it adds complication to the setup as a whole.

Before beginning anything, of course make sure you have working backups.

I would still recommend creating a new VM and then copying your file server shares over to it.

Since this is also your email server and SW network monitor you can easily leave these roles intact and just have 2 VM's instead of the 1 you have now.

scottalanmiller

@pmoncho is it your physical server does lots of "roles" via separate VMs? Or a single VM doing many tasks?

pmoncho

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

scottalanmiller

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

pmoncho

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

The issue is I don't have the server licenses. I would like to split these up like Dustin suggested.

I am also trying to plan for the near future. Within the next month or so I will upgrade to ESXI 6.5 (backup software has held me up). In the next year I would like to move to Windows 2016. I have a few old apps that need to go away first before I can change OS's.

scottalanmiller

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

The issue is I don't have the server licenses. I would like to split these up like Dustin suggested.

Most of those workloads aren't things you'd want to use licenses for though, I would imagine. Network monitoring would basically always be a Linux or BSD workload item, I would think. I can't think of any reasonably competitive product that works or works as well on Windows. And if it isn't on Windows, no license needed.

DustinB3403

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

pmoncho

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

scottalanmiller

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

Oh, I just went through, it is specifically SW Network Monitor. So that is Windows Server only, sorry missed that it was that specific tool.

pmoncho

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

The issue is I don't have the server licenses. I would like to split these up like Dustin suggested.

Most of those workloads aren't things you'd want to use licenses for though, I would imagine. Network monitoring would basically always be a Linux or BSD workload item, I would think. I can't think of any reasonably competitive product that works or works as well on Windows. And if it isn't on Windows, no license needed.

I would agree for the longer term future. My linux/BSD knowledge is not quite up there yet but that is my goal for the year.

scottalanmiller

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

The issue is I don't have the server licenses. I would like to split these up like Dustin suggested.

Most of those workloads aren't things you'd want to use licenses for though, I would imagine. Network monitoring would basically always be a Linux or BSD workload item, I would think. I can't think of any reasonably competitive product that works or works as well on Windows. And if it isn't on Windows, no license needed.

I would agree for the longer term future. My linux/BSD knowledge is not quite up there yet but that is my goal for the year.

Monitoring is a good place to dip the proverbial toe, because if something goes wrong, only IT knows about it and the business isn't affected.

pmoncho

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

Oh, I just went through, it is specifically SW Network Monitor. So that is Windows Server only, sorry missed that it was that specific tool.

Its all good. I want to get rid of that someday too if SodiumSuite is comparable? Do I have that correct?

DustinB3403

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

So an offset to this is you can easily setup a linux server to act as your file server. So you can "save" a license here. The other services, Email (I'm assuming exchange) has to be run on Windows as well does SW Network Monitor.

But you can easily replace SW network monitor with Zabbix or literally anything else, while using less system resources and not have to think about the licensing.

pmoncho

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

So an offset to this is you can easily setup a linux server to act as your file server. So you can "save" a license here. The other services, Email (I'm assuming exchange) has to be run on Windows as well does SW Network Monitor.

Email is Kerio Connect. Now GFI. They do have a Linux appliance but sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As for fileserver, I setup RBAC in AD and even with Samba 4.4, permissions are an issue. Like I mentioned to Scott, my lack of Linux knowledge could be the issue here.

But you can easily replace SW network monitor with Zabbix or literally anything else, while using less system resources and not have to think about the licensing.

I will look into Zabbix. It's just that SW network monitor does exactly what I need so I stuck with it.

DustinB3403

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@dustinb3403 said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@pmoncho said in Combine fracture VM folders:

@scottalanmiller said in Combine fracture VM folders:

" via separate VMs

In this instance, it is a single VM doing three tasks.

This server does not get taxed very much. Network Monitor is more of a strain than email or file services.

I would highly recommend splitting these into three different VMs then. No reason not to, right?

Microsoft Licensing is a very likely reason.

Your right on that.

So an offset to this is you can easily setup a linux server to act as your file server. So you can "save" a license here. The other services, Email (I'm assuming exchange) has to be run on Windows as well does SW Network Monitor.

Email is Kerio Connect. Now GFI. They do have a Linux appliance but sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As for fileserver, I setup RBAC in AD and even with Samba 4.4, permissions are an issue. Like I mentioned to Scott, my lack of knowledge could be the issue here.

But you can easily replace SW network monitor with Zabbix or literally anything else, while using less system resources and not have to think about the licensing.

I will look into Zabbix. It's just that SW network monitor does exactly what I need so I stuck with it.

The biggest issue is it's forcing you to spend for Windows licensing which just doesn't make sense.