[SOLVED] move to iSCSI shared storage without cluster

[LuisManson]

Hello, some time ago I had a server die suddenly, I restored a backup into a temporary server and decided to go with shared storage, now im moving to a NAS with iSCSI and LVM, and need to move those VMs from the temporary Proxmox into the new one, of course with minimal downtime but can not figure how to do this.

i've setup a iSCSI connection from a the NAS on both hosts along with LVM and while I'm able to see the test disk image in the other host, I see no way to add or import this into a working VM in that host....

Any help is appreciated

 

[bbgeek17]

There is no "approved" procedure to achieve your goal. You have:
1) don't want a cluster
2) don't want downtime
3) want to move the vms

You can only have two out of three. The most sensible approach would be to create a temporary cluster, migrate the VMs, and break the cluster. But you have to be cognizant that the target node has to be void of VMs.

The other approach is to add iSCSI to the existing server, move the VMs to that storage, carefully shut them down, ensure the storage is not in use, remove the configuration file from the source, and disable/deactivate iSCSI on the source. Move the configuration file manually from source to target, activate iSCSI there, and start the VMs.
A wrong step at any point in the above could lead to losing data (i.e. you can destroy a VM and its volumes), so I recommend you dry-run through the steps in a lab/test.

A 3rd option is to backup the VMs+data and restore them to target. With careful juggling of network, you can have both source and target running in parallel and then switch the network over. This requires advanced network understanding and double the space.

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Blockbridge: Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

 

[LuisManson]

Thank you very much!
I'll evaluate first two options. The first one seems to be less troublesome... in the second scenario, I would only have to move a file from /etc/pveqemu-server, right?

 

[bbgeek17]

Yes, move the config file and ensure the storage object exists with the same name that the config points to with appropriate volumes.
There could be other complications if the hardware between two servers is different enough, so test first.
Dont try to access the same storage/volume from more than one location at the same time.

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Blockbridge: Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox