Can I move a LUN from one phsical server to VM client?

Question

I have a 500GB LUN created over our QNAP, and it's connected/binded to one server 2K3. It is identified on that server as disk E (Dynamic)

I want to remove it from Server A, and connect it to a client on our VM.

Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes you can move the LUN, that bit's no problem. You would need to add it to the Client OS on the VM, you wouldn't be able to add it to VMWare host. Make sure you update the ACL under Disk Management > iSCSI > Advanced ACL before you try it. You'll need to make sure that the iSCSI adapter on both hosts are on the same network as the QNAP and then just remove the target on the original server and add the target on the new server. Screenshot your iSCSI initiator settings first on the source server so you have something to reference.

You may run in to problems though if you've made the disk a Windows dynamic disk (assuming you've written (Dynamic) above). Moving a dynamic disk between computers is a highly dubious task. See the Microsoft KB on Best practices for using dynamic disks on Windows Server 2003-based computers and scroll down to the heading Moving dynamic disks.