I did some browsing of the existing articles regarding this question but I couldn't find it so I apologize if I simply missed it.
My current setup:
- 1 x 2008 R2 Hyper-V Cluster
- 3 x Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V host nodes
- 1 x Fibre channel storage device housing all of the guest VMs (FC switch in between the storage device and the hosts, interconnecting them). There's about 2 TB of guest VMs in this "production-CSV".
I have 3 newer servers and an extra, smaller capacity FC storage device that I could use to temporarily house the guest VMS.
My goal is to upgrade my current 2008 R2 3-node hyper-v cluster to server 2012 R2, "using the same FC storage" (production-CSV) and expand to a 6 hyper-v node (3 newer servers + 3 current "older" servers). I have read many, many articles regarding this process and the steps seem pretty straight forward. This is what I was planning to do based on my readings:
- Add temp-CSV to existing 2008 R2 cluster
- Move guest VMs from production-CSV to temp-CSV using export/import (to minimize downtime)
- Remove production-CSV from existing 2008 R2 cluster
- Stand up new 2012 R2 cluster with 3 newer servers and production-CSV
- Present temp-CSV to 2012 R2 (I think I can do that while the 2008 R2 cluster is still using it?)
- Use Cluster migration wizard to transfer 2008 R2 cluster config to 2012 R2 cluster config
- Export/Import guest VMs back to the production-CSV from temp=CSV
- Evict 2008 R2 nodes from 2008 R2 cluster
- Destroy 2008 R2 cluster
- Reinstall old nodes with 2012 R2 standard and add to 2012 R2 cluster
Do I have this right? Am I making more work for myself then is necessary? Is there a way to do this without moving my guest VMs off the production-CSV?
Thanks for the help!