Oracle VM 3: Migrating a SAN Server Pool File System to a Different Storage Array (Doc ID 1919855.1)

Last updated on OCTOBER 11, 2023

Applies to:

Goal

The solution described in this note applies to Oracle VM 3.2.8 and later, including Oracle VM 3.3, and 3.4.

This note explains how to change the device special file (DSF) being used as a server pool file system. This can be applied to a variety of situations, but the most common need for this solution is migrating the pool file system and storage repositories used by a server pool to a different storage array. In this case, system administrators are charged with migrating storage repositories as well as pool file systems.  It is the pool file system that requires the steps described here. This solution discusses the Oracle VM procedures for moving the server pool file system. Customers should use the storage administration procedures for their specific storage system for replicating the LUN contents from one storage server to another.

Oracle VM 3 does not currently have a built-in tool or way to change the pool file system without incurring downtime of all running Oracle VM guests.  This is because the server pool must be temporarily destroyed and rebuilt using the new pool file system. There are two major ways to approach the migration from one pool file system to another.

The first approach presented in this note is straightforward with well defined stages. This involves stopping all Oracle VM guests, temporarily destroying the server pool and rebuilding the server pool again using a new pool file system.

The second approach is more complex, so it will be only briefly described: It involves using one Oracle VM server from the legacy server pool to build a new server pool using the new pool file system, then migrating the remaining Oracle VM servers one-by-one until everything is running in the new pool. You still incur an outage of all Oracle VM guests at various stages using this method and you will need another server pool VIP (virtual IP) on Oracle VM 3.2 and 3.3. Please see Section 2.2.4.1 What is a "Master Server and a Virtual IP Address?" in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide at https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/oracle-vm/3.4/concepts/vmcon-ovm.html#vmcon-ovm-server-pools. There is little advantage to this process except in cases where you cannot tolerate an outage of all virtual machines during the same maintenance window.

Solution

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