Virtualizing EV server

[James_Herbert]

All,

I'm currently running EV 7.5 SP2 with San attached luns for SQL DB, logs and EV stores, SQL 2000 SP4 with a 1.6GB database and Exchange 2003 SP2.  I'm looking to virtualize the box using VM 3.5 which is now supported by Symantec.  Has any one virtualized there ESX box? Can anyone see any holes in my plan?

1. Disable SQL and EV services
2. Boot from VMware Cold Clone CD
3. Add SQL DB (d:), SQL Log (e:) and EV stores (f:) luns to ESX servers via San interface
4. Add VM RDM for the luns to the newly migrated virtual server.
5. Ensure the luns are presented as correct drive letters
6. Start SQL and EV services

Any advise or potential issues would be gratefully received

[MichelZ]

Sounds good for me, but I haven't done P2V yet with EV...

Don't forget to backup it before ;)

Cheers

Michel

[DanSFI]

I did this about 2.5 months ago. I simply shut the machine down, cold cloned it with the CD and then fired it back up on my ESX box and it just worked. I did not virtualize the SAN volume that contains my vault and database. I simply connected to it from within the VM with the MS iSCSI initiator like I had been doing with the physical machine.  I have had zero issues since. 

That said, I am only providing archiving for about 20 users so it isn't a huge installation (but all of the infrastructure is the same whether it is 20 users or 500.)