Moving Vault Store partitions from DAS to SAN

[Rem_y]

Hiya, I'm going to move my vault store partitons from a DAS to a SAN, and have been reviewing the technical documentation on how to achieve this. Can I get clarification on a few points to make sure I'm on the right path?

If I return results in the the Watchfile table greater than 0, I need to ensure these items are backed up, and that rerunning this query = 0 before I continue?

also, as I'm moving from a Drive letter convention to UNC paths, is [the SQL] as easy as updating the PartitionRootPath from a drive letter naming convention to UNC path convention?

So, instead of

C:\Enterprise Vault\path name

to \\name\name\name

If that makes sense?

[JesusWept3 · Accepted solution]

Yup, it really is as simple as that, and yeah you do want to get your WatchFile entries down to 0 because it holds the exact path to the files its looking for,

So if you go from 

E:\Enterprise Vault\Vault Stores\EMail Store\Ptn1\2013\06-07\......
to \\myNetApp\Vault Stores\Email Store\Ptn1\2013\06-07\ etc

it will continue to look for the DVS/DVSSP/DVSCC files in the E:\ location unless you update the path in SQL directly 

[GabeV]

Casini,

Are you trying to change the storage type as well? Based on your description, you are going from NTFS Volume to Network Share. If this is SAN storage, I think that creating a LUN and mapping the LUN to the Windows server with another drive letter would be more easy to manage, since it would only need a new path to the new LUN.

[EV_Ajay]

Hi ,

Update the location of the Vault Store Partition(s) in the EnterpriseVaultDirectory database

Open SQL Server Enterprise Manager (SQL 2000) or SQL Server Management Studio (SQL 2005)

1. Expand Databases
2. Expand EnterpriseVaultDirectory
3. Expand Tables
4. Right-click the VaultStoreEntry table then select Open Table  
5. Search the VaultStoreName column for the VaultStore that contains the partition that is being moved, and take note of the corresponding VaultStoreEntryId
6. Close the VaultStoreEntry table
7. Right click the PartitionEntry table then select Open
8. In the VaultStoreEntryId column, locate the VaultStoreEntryId from step 5 that corresponds to the Partition that is being moved
9. Modify the In the PartitionRootPath column to indicate the new location of the Partition
10. Repeat for each Partition that is being moved.

 If the location is a NAS device and not a local drive, simply update the PartitionRootPath to the new UNC path rather than using a local file path

[Rem_y]

Thanks a million for the responses,

As I have options now, I will quickly run this in my test environment first and report back the solution I chose

Many thanks for your input

[AndrewB]

this is an official technote and video about the process

How to Move a Vault Store Partition or Vault Store

Article:TECH35742

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Created: 2004-01-25

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Updated: 2013-05-23

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Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH35742

[Pradeep-Papnai]

You already have document ready http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH35742 for moving the partition. Now you can make your work little easy by steps below.

Check watch file count for the partition you are moving by following query.

1.Note down IDParition value by following query for the partition you are going to move.

use EnterpriseVaultDirectory
select IdPartition, PartitionRootPath, PartitionName from partitionentry

2.Ran query against vault store database if watch file any entry (replace VSDatabase & PartitionID value from step 1)

Use <VSDatabase>
Select count (*) from watchfile where IDParition = <ParitionID>    

If above returns 0 value then procceed for parition move mention in step 4. Modifying the PartitionRootPath column to indicate the new location of the Partition in directory database.

3.If watch fil still have entries then either to wait for back up to happen OR use "IgnoreArchiveBitTrigger.txt" file machnism to clear out watch file entries quickly.

a. Create blank text file with name 'IgnoreArchiveBitTrigger.txt' and put it in parition root path.
b. Change partition backup strategy to use trigger file instead of archive bit, restart storage service.
c. Now the file must be rename to IgnoreARchiveBitTrigger.old and watch file must decrease (run query in 2 step).

4.Modifying the PartitionRootPath column to indicate the new location of the Partition in directory database.

use EnterpriseVaultDirectory
update dbo.PartitionEntry
set PartitionRootPath = 'New_Path' where ParitionRootPath = 'old_path'