SAN Migration - DataFiles movement to new drives

  • Hi,

    We have got new space (SAN) allocated recently by storage folks to one of our database server to resolve I/O issues with some specific drives (D: & E:). Inorder to make use of the new drives, i am trying to move all the files (user DB + SYSTEM DB DataFiles) that are present on the current drives (bad drives) to the new one's (drives in good condition).

    Before making the technical plan, I just want to make sure I am not missing anything. I am putting all the steps that I am going to include in the plan, Please help me out if I am missing anything.

    Environment:

    1) Windows 2003 server.

    2) Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (SP3) - 10.0.5768.0 (X64)

    Nov 4 2011 11:32:40

    Copyright (c) 1988-2008 Microsoft Corporation

    Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 5.2 <X64> (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)

    3) Clustered (2 Node)

    4) Drive D: has Data files & E: has TEMPDB files.

    Steps:-

    ====================================================

    1) Bring down all the services on the database server.

    2) Enable the new drives that are assigned, and assume we are naming them as X: (Old D:) & Y (Old E:).

    3) Start copying all the files to the new drives from the respective drives.

    4) Once Copy is successful, try renaming the old drives to D: -> I: and E: -> J:.

    5) Once you rename the old drives, start renaming the new drives X: -> D: and Y: -> E:.

    6) Once renaming is done, try starting all the services on the database.

    7) Make sure all the DB's are up and is able to accept requests/connections.

    8) Does it require any Maintenance tasks (ShrinkFiles, UpdateStats etc) post moving all required files? Please advice?

    I am aware there is one more option (Attach/Dettach) to achieve this, but since we are moving system datafiles, it is ruledout.

    Please advice if there are any other ways (easy) of doing it.

    Thanks,

    Nagarjun.

  • Since this is a clustered environment and you are adding new disks after you have migrated the data over (and before you try starting up services) you will need to change the SQL Server dependencies from the old disks to the new disks. Also, if you have an MS-DTC cluster resource relying on the old disks it will have to either be moved or recreated as well.

    Joie Andrew
    "Since 1982"

  • ArjunaReddy (8/18/2013)


    Hi,

    We have got new space (SAN) allocated recently by storage folks to one of our database server to resolve I/O issues with some specific drives (D: & E:). Inorder to make use of the new drives, i am trying to move all the files (user DB + SYSTEM DB DataFiles) that are present on the current drives (bad drives) to the new one's (drives in good condition).

    Before making the technical plan, I just want to make sure I am not missing anything. I am putting all the steps that I am going to include in the plan, Please help me out if I am missing anything.

    Environment:

    1) Windows 2003 server.

    2) Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (SP3) - 10.0.5768.0 (X64)

    Nov 4 2011 11:32:40

    Copyright (c) 1988-2008 Microsoft Corporation

    Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 5.2 <X64> (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)

    3) Clustered (2 Node)

    4) Drive D: has Data files & E: has TEMPDB files.

    Steps:-

    ====================================================

    1) Bring down all the services on the database server.

    2) Enable the new drives that are assigned, and assume we are naming them as X: (Old D:) & Y (Old E:).

    3) Start copying all the files to the new drives from the respective drives.

    4) Once Copy is successful, try renaming the old drives to D: -> I: and E: -> J:.

    5) Once you rename the old drives, start renaming the new drives X: -> D: and Y: -> E:.

    6) Once renaming is done, try starting all the services on the database.

    7) Make sure all the DB's are up and is able to accept requests/connections.

    8) Does it require any Maintenance tasks (ShrinkFiles, UpdateStats etc) post moving all required files? Please advice?

    I am aware there is one more option (Attach/Dettach) to achieve this, but since we are moving system datafiles, it is ruledout.

    Please advice if there are any other ways (easy) of doing it.

    Thanks,

    Nagarjun.

    You cant just rename drives when they are clustered resources.

    If i were you i would setup the new drives with the new drive letters and then migrate all databases to the new drives\paths, Get the system databases moved and startable first and then use the alter database command for each user database you are moving.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Yes, since it is a cluster when you rename your drives it will loose the cluster awareness and sql server dependency as well for MSDTC and SQLAgent. You are better off adding new drives to teh cluster and moving stuff over to it. master and model are the two tough ones.

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