Case Study
Virtual Machine Migration to Shared Storage + High Availability
Migrated from direct-attached storage to shared SAN storage, then added clustering so workloads can fail over between hosts.
Context
A client was already virtualized on two hypervisor hosts, but wanted to move from direct-attached storage to shared storage.
What We Did
- Migrated several VMs to the new Nimble SAN.
- Added required infrastructure:
- New switch
- Host bus adapters for iSCSI
- Multipath I/O configuration on the hypervisor hosts
- Decommissioned the now-unnecessary direct storage.
- Upgraded RAM on both hosts.
- Deployed server clustering so either physical host could host all VMs if the other host fails.
Result
With SAN performance, added memory, and clustering failover, the environment gained major stability and resilience. The remaining next step was backups and off-site replication for disaster recovery (DR).
Next
Backup modernization + off-site replication for DR.
Start with an IT Risk & Roadmap Brief
If this kind of work is relevant, the brief is the fastest way to get a clear picture of risk, priorities, and next steps.