EV server Running out of Space - Help.

[Matthew_Bennett]

Currently we are running EV 7.5 sp1 on a IBM x series server with over 600 gb of drive space allocated on the D: partition. The C Partition is only 40 GB running the OS only (Win2003).

The D: parttion has all the stores, indexes, EV program files stored on it and currently only has 120 GB left out of the 660GB total space. In estimation it only has 7-8 months left before space melt down.

We are going to set up a IBM n series San and attach it to the Server using ISCSI.

1. Has any one yet virtualised a EV server yet and has there been any problems.

2. Is it better now to setup the SAN and leave all the original stores and indexes etc and create a new drive link ing to the SAN and creating a new store so in theory the only think growing on the original server would be the indexes. ?

3. Or would it be better to disconnect the D: drive after stopping all the services then renaming it E: then copy all the data to the san storage to a drive called D: and then re-starting the services.

4. Just moving all the stores onto the SAN to a drive called E: , but this will mean messing around with the database renaming links etc.

We are planning on backing up the SAN using IBM TSM (Tivoli).

Any help and advice would be appreciated .

Matthew.  

[jimbo2]

I will not advise you on the design but here are some tech articles for changing/moving data. They do work.
Hope this helps.

How to move a Vault Store partition or Vault Store on the same Enterprise Vault server from one location to another
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/273271.htm

How to move Enterprise Vault (EV) indexes that are managed by the same EV server
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/273141.htm

[MarkBarefoot]

I would advise speaking to our Professional Services branch. If you have a Technical Account Manager get in touch with them. They can look at your system, do some tests for analysis of throughput, growth etc and implement/assist.

[StoutAT]

I just finished virtualizing my EV server.  I'm running VMWare ESX 3.5.  The toughest part was getting my fiber channel san zoned correctly to the new ESX servers.  Once that was in place I used RDMs in VMWare to make the SAN available to the new VM.  I then added that new VM into my MSCS cluster successfully.  I had a few issues with the print spooler resource, but found that was simply a driver issue.

I have since installed EV 6.0, transferred the DB from my "physical" EV server, then performed an upgrade to EV 7.0, then to 2007 SP2.  Everything is working at this point.

My next step is to clone the new EV VM and make another cluster member and then enable an EV clustered environment.

It took a lot of work, but I'd be happy to assist you since I've been through it.

[Andy_Lukens]

I moved 2TB+ of data from an EMC SAN to a NetApp SAN due to space constraints.  I moved the vault stores, indexes, message queues and temporary file locations.  The overview process:

1) Copied all the closed partitions while EV was online
2) Shutdown all EV services
4) Copied the open partitions and indexes
5) Modifed a handful of SQL tables to point to the new drives and folders
6) Restarted the EV services

I can dig up the documentation that I used to change the SQL tables if it would help.  The whole process was actually pretty easy but the copies using Robocopy took days due to all the small files.  I would definitely suggest doing the open partitions and indexes over a weekend since EV will be offline.

Indexes should be put on your fastest disk.  Most likely that will be the SAN, so I'd suggest going that route.  Here's a good performance guide from Symantec that should help: http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/288395.htm

Andy

[bruce_drenning]

It's easy enough to close your existing partitions on D: and open new ones on E: (or whatever, you can write directly to CIFS shares, too). With 7.5 you can move the indexes, or add new Index Locations to slow the growth then move them later. None of that requires any sql. That will buy you plenty of time to move the remnants from D: when you need  a new server.

good luck